Cotton
late Middle English: from Old French coton, from Arabic quṭn .
wiktionary
Middle English cotoun, from Anglo-Norman cotun, Old French coton, from (Genoese) Old Italian cotone, from Arabic قُطُن (quṭun), of uncertain origin. There is no apparent semantic link between the Arabic word and the root ق ط ن (q-ṭ-n), leading to suggestions that it is a corruption of another word, such as كَتّان (kattān, “flax”) or (more distant phonologically) جَفْنَة (jafna, “vine”). Cognate to Dutch katoen, German Kattun, Italian cotone, Spanish algodón, and Portuguese algodão.
1560s, either from Welsh cydun, cytun(“agree, coincide”) ( cyduno, cytuno), from cyd, cyt + un(“one”), literally “to be at one with”, or by metaphor with the textile, as cotton blended well with other textiles, notably wool in hat-making.
etymonline
cotton (n.)
late 13c., "white fibrous substance containing the seeds of the cotton plant," from Old French coton (12c.), ultimately (via Provenal, Italian, or Old Spanish) from Arabic qutn, a word perhaps of Egyptian origin. Also ultimately from the Arabic word are Dutch katoen, German Kattun, Provenal coton, Italian cotone, Spanish algodon, Portuguese algodo.
As "cloth made of cotton," from early 15c. Meaning "the cotton plant" is from c. 1400. As an adjective, "made of cotton," from 1550s. Cotton gin is recorded from 1794 (see gin (n.2)). Philip Miller of the Chelsea Physic Garden sent the first cotton seeds to American colony of Georgia in 1732.
cotton (v.)
1560s, "to prosper, succeed;" of things, "to agree, suit, fit," a word of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Welsh cytuno "consent, agree;" but perhaps rather a metaphor from cloth-finishing and thus from cotton (n.). Hensleigh Wedgwood compares cot "a fleece of wool matted together." Meaning "become closely or intimately associated (with)," is from 1805 via the sense of "to get along together" (of persons), attested from c. 1600. Related: Cottoned; cottoning.
