Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.
cowan (plural cowans or cowanis)
A worker in unmortared stone; a stonemason who has not served an apprenticeship.
(freemasonry) A person who attempts to pass himself off as a Freemason without having experienced the rituals or going through the degrees.
(slang) A sneak; an inquisitive or prying person.
(in attributive use) Uninitiated, outside, “profane”.
cowan (plural cowans)
(Scottish, obsolete, rare) A fishing-boat.
Cowan
A Scottish surname; an anglicization of mac Eoghainn (“son of Ewen”)
An Irish surname; an anglicization of mac Eógain (“son of Owen”)
A Jewish surname a variant of Cohen.
A city in Tennessee; named after Dr. James Benjamin Cowan, a Civil War-era doctor whose family had lived in the area since the early 1800s.
A town in New South Wales. Apparently an anglicization of a Yuin-Kuric aus-yuk word meaning “big water”.
A town in Manitoba.
A census-designated place in Stanislaus County, California, United States.
Source: Wiktionary
Cow"an (kou"an), n. Etym: [Cf. OF. couillon a coward, a cullion.]
Definition: One who works as a mason without having served a regular apprenticeship. [Scot.]
Note: Among Freemasons, it is a cant term for pretender, interloper.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
13 April 2025
(noun) an instance or single occasion for some event; “this time he succeeded”; “he called four times”; “he could do ten at a clip”
Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.