{{no footnotes, date=September 2017 Liège (17)

A kot (diminutive ''kotje'') is a type of

student housing A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...

privately rented during the academic or school year in Belgium. The word ''kot'' is used in both

Belgian Dutch Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

and

Belgian French Belgian French (french: français de Belgique) is the variety of French spoken mainly among the French Community of Belgium, alongside related Oïl languages of the region such as Walloon, Picard, Champenois, and Lorrain (Gaumais). The Frenc ...

, but not in

standard Dutch Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. ''Afrikaans'' ...

standard French Standard French (in French: ''le français standard'', ''le français normé'', ''le français neutre'' eutral Frenchor ''le français international'' nternational French is an unofficial term for a standard variety of the French language. It ...

Etymology

The word comes from Flemish and means small shelter, nest, cabin (as in ''friet kot'', a chip shed, or ''kot à poule'', a

chicken coop Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to produce meat or eggs for food. Poultry – mostly chickens – are farmed in great numbers. More than 60 billion c ...

). It can also even refer to slums. This term specifically used in Belgium refers to a cupboard (''un kot à balais'', a broom cupboard) and by extension any small room such as a student room. It emphasizes the narrow aspect which is typically encountered in such housing. These kots can be either individual or part of a shared house, in which a certain area is public (the kitchen, the toilets and showers, etc.) casually called "commu" (rooms shared in common). The word ''kot'' is still in use in the

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.

dialect, pronounced “kotsheu“ (a small kot), meaning a shed, a garden shed, a junk room. Derived words include: *the verb ''kotter'' ("to kot"), which means to rent and inhabit a ''kot'', usually only during the week *the nouns ''kotteur'' and ''kotteuse'' refer to the tenant of a ''kot'' and often by extension to every student living outside the family home *the nouns ''cokotteur'' or ''cokotier'' and ''cokotteuse'' (or ''cokotière''), which mean housemate.

Project kots

Some community kots take part in a project, in particular in

Louvain-la-Neuve Louvain-la-Neuve (, French for ''New Leuven''; wa, Li Noû Lovén) is a planned town in the municipality of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Wallonia, Belgium, situated 30 km southeast of Brussels, in the province of Walloon Brabant. The town ...

. These " project kots" offer a large variety of activities. The project could be organizing a weekly spaghetti party, homework support, supporting a humanitarian organization. The only boundary is the creativity in management skills and the ability to bring people together.

References

*Françoise Hiraux, Laurent Honnoré, Françoise Mirguet, ''La vie étudiante à Louvain, 1425-2000: chronique de l'Université'' (2002
Google Books
*Georges Lebouc, ''Dictionnaire de belgicismes'' (2006), p. 363 *Roger Silverstone, ed., ''Media, Technology and Everyday Life in Europe'' (2017
Google Books
Student housing Belgian culture