# Cotter's Nest **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 31, 2010, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cotters-nest/552112 "2010-08-31T11:31:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cotters-nest/552112/1 "2010-08-31T11:31:36Z")
My dreams have done it again. I’ve been having particularly memorable dreams of late, and sometimes they’re so _reasonable_ that I have to wonder where my subconscious is getting it from. Last night I dreamed that the term “Cotter’s Nest” was a Colonial-era slang term. I’d never heard or read this anywhere, to my knowledge. I never even considered that the particular situation occurred (although, in retrospect, it makes sense), or that it would acquire its own slang term. In short, I’m amazed my brain came up with this, rather than channelling some 18th century secretary, or something. But I’m a skeptical type, so I do think it was my own imagination. Although I did an internet search for the term. Without success. Here’s the situation. People in the 18th and 19th centuries used goose-quill pens, which were kept in quill holders or inkstands. In fact, there were stands with places for multiple quills. I have a reproduction of one such atop my desk. My dream informed me that when such a stand gets overcrowded – with one quill per site, or, even worse, multiple pens in each hole, it would get cluttered and messy and look something like a bird’s nest. A **Cotter’s Nest**. This was a derogatory slang term for such an abused and overused multiple inkstand. Say, in an office. It makes sense. And, as I say, I’d never have thought of it. It’s a good, derisory term that would be used disparagingly of an office that didn’t provide enough inkstands, or which had such low standards that it would let one stand get to be such a mess. And I’ve encountered the word “cooter” used for “duck”, although I can’t find an internet citation, which invariably cite the Southern use for “turtle” (or something else\*). I can swear to the use (or misuse) of “cooter” for “duck” by at least one source, and that sort of makes sense, because then the “cotter’s nest” would be a Duck’s Nest, which would make sense for a mess of quill pens (birds often line nests with feathers on the inside). And it would imply that the office wasn’t using proper goose quills, but very substandard duck quills, if such a thing could even exist. I have to conclude that my subconscious came up with this on its own, while the rest of me was sleeping. It doesn’t even matter if no one but that one source for “cooter + duck” occurs anywwhere else besides that one place I saw it – that would be enough for my mind to latch onto it and use it in the construction. So – has anyone else ever heared this term, or one like it? I’d be curious to know if it actually exists (though I doubt it). Or do you have a similar experience. \*Yeah, I know that “cooter” is slang for “girl parts”. On which, see this column: [http://www.sptimes.com/2004/07/19/Citrus/Local\_turtle\_or\_euphe.shtml](http://www.sptimes.com/2004/07/19/Citrus/Local_turtle_or_euphe.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cotters-nest/552112/2 "2010-08-31T16:56:48Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > So – has anyone else ever heared this term, or one like it? I’d be curious to know if it actually exists (though I doubt it). Your subconscious is making a pad pun. Somehow it got [cotter pins](http://www.sizes.com/tools/cotter_pins.htm) mixed up with ink pens. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cotters-nest/552112/3 "2010-08-31T19:45:38Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > And I’ve encountered the word “cooter” used for “duck”, although I can’t find an internet citation, which invariably cite the Southern use for “turtle” (or something else\*). I can swear to the use (or misuse) of “cooter” for “duck” by at least one source, and that sort of makes sense, because then the “cotter’s nest” would be a Duck’s Nest, which would make sense for a mess of quill pens (birds often line nests with feathers on the inside). And it would imply that the office wasn’t using proper goose quills, but very substandard duck quills, if such a thing could even exist. > > I have to conclude that my subconscious came up with this on its own, while the rest of me was sleeping. It doesn’t even matter if no one but that one source for “cooter + duck” occurs anywwhere else besides that one place I saw it – that would be enough for my mind to latch onto it and use it in the construction. Despite my misspent Louisiana youth, I can’t say I ever heard “cooter” used in reference to a duck. People in my neck of the woods didn’t often use the term for turtles, either, though–they tended to be more specific: “streakyhead”, “box turtle”, “stink turtle”… Regardless, should I run across a crowded, messy quill-stand\*, I will refer to it as a cotter’s nest in your honor. \*In my life, this is not a particularly unlikely happenstance. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cotters-nest/552112/4 "2010-08-31T19:52:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Your subconscious is making a pad pun. Somehow it got cotter pins mixed up with ink pens. Cotter pins I know. i recently had to get some, in fact, which might be why the word is so easily floating around in my head. But I don’t think it’s pins/pens. It was a “cotter’s nest”. > [@](#): > > Despite my misspent Louisiana youth, I can’t say I ever heard “cooter” used in reference to a duck. I can’t find it on the Internet, but I do have it in a book, so I know I’m not imagining it. It’s probably related to “coot”: > **[Coot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coot)** > > For extinct and prehistoric species, see article text > Coots are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family, Rallidae. They constitute the genus Fulica, the name being the Latin term for "coot". Coots have predominantly black plumage, and—unlike many rails—they are usually easy to see, often swimming in open water. > The genus Fulica was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The genus name is the Latin word for a... > [@](#): > > Regardless, should I run across a crowded, messy quill-stand\*, I will refer to it as a cotter’s nest in your honor. > > \*In my life, this is not a particularly unlikely happenstance. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cotters-nest/552112/5 "2010-08-31T20:38:14Z")
Hm, I have heard of making pens of goose, and turkey and raven quills. I do like Cotters Nest as a term as well. It would make sense that there would be some sort of term for a messy scriveners desk.