Jenn's been photographing herself in all her wardrobe, bit by bit.

[conuly]

She put on a t-shirt, and I remarked that it looked very comfortable.

Jenn: Yes, and cozy!
Me: No, it can't be cozy, it doesn't have sleeves.
Jenn: Are you saying you can't be cozy in the summer?
Me: That is exactly what I'm saying, glad you understand.
Jenn: You are so wrong.
Me: Am not! That's why when you put a hat sweater on your egg or your teapot to keep it warm, that's called a cozy! You can only be cozy when you're warm against the cold!
Jenn: Nuh-uh!
Me: Uh-huh!

Anyway, I came up here to poll you all. I'm right, right?

Poll #22928 Coziness

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 81

View Respondents

Can a t-shirt be cozy?

View Answers

Yes!
47 (59.5%)

No!
32 (40.5%)

Is coziness, in fact, intrinsically limited to cool or cold days?

View Answers

Of course!
34 (43.6%)

No!
44 (56.4%)

Edit: Well, goofed that, I meant to make them both drop-downs. Oh well.

Comments

[elainegrey]

I couldn't decide, so i looked at the responses and was delighted to see near parity in the responses.

Looking at the definition, you are RIGHT.

[troisoiseaux]

I've never thought about it in much semantic detail until, er, right now, but I guess I associate coziness with softness as much as with warmth? So I would definitely describe a t shirt as cozy.

[low_delta]

The weather doesn't need to be cold, only cool enough that some article of clothing can bring us to where we prefer to be, temperature-wise. So cozy needs to be warm against the cold, but cold is relative, so light clothing can be cozy in the right circumstances.

[dine]

t-shirts can be comfy, but cozy doesn't fit

[siderea]

I entirely agree with you in principle, but I believe you are wrong in a particular.

Once upon a time, tn3270 went to a conference in Chicago at a hotel that turned out to be having some issues with the HVAC. It was late May, and apparently somebody had decided that that meant it was time to turn on the AC, despite the fact it was 50degF out.

I was underdressed for this occasion. He hit up a gift shop and found a large-enough-for-him long-sleeve commemorative "CHICAGO" t-shirt of particularly heavy jersey cotton which I then proceeded to wear for the rest of the conference over my other clothes.

So, yes, a t-shirt can be cosy.

[conuly]

A long-sleeve t-shirt? Isn't that a contradiction in terms?

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Nope, a tee shirt is just a crew neck knit shirt, so they do come long sleeved. There are also mock necks, which mostly are long sleeved. A long sleeved A-shirt would be a contradiction in terms, since a tank cannot have sleeves.

[conuly]

I think that can't possibly be right.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Long sleeve tees are a thing. They are a different thing than a henley, than a thermal top, than a mock neck or a turtle neck.

They are different than an undershirt, so they're on a different branch of the shirt family.

[siderea]

No? It's totally a thing.

[conuly]

There must be some mistake here. What sort of T is your shirt making with long sleeves?

[siderea]

A capital T. Duh.

Really, what you're talking about ought to be called a "serifed iShirt".

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

It's a Popeye tee, where his forearms punctuate the T.

Clint of course believes in the sans serif Ishirt.

[conuly]

I'm gonna end up making a new poll.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

You can be comfy in the summer, but being cozy is a state only found in winter. Unless you work in a computer center and so winter happens indoors year round. Then you can be cozy if your sweaters and spill resistant hot beverage consent.

*Fall and Spring have cozy components, or maybe it's just winter is so long here.

[sixbeforelunch]

I agree with you that coziness is linked with being warm when it's cool/cold, but I do think a T-shirt can be cozy in certain circumstances. Putting one on over a swimsuit on an overcast day at the beach, for example.

[julian]

I voted yes, it can be, but I apparently only think I t-shirt is cosy if it's really big and voluminous and all-enveloping. So a tent t-shirt, for certain moods.

[chomiji]

Re cozy on hot days: AC is a thing. XD

Maybe the word she needs is comfy. Comfy is possible at any \emperature compatible with human life.

[hudebnik]

I think of "cozy" as meaning "protected from SOMETHING -- not necessarily cold -- but still constantly aware of the SOMETHING you're protected from." For example, being inside an office building on a rainy day isn't cozy, but being inside a non-leaky tent on a rainy day is. Being inside a luxury cruise ship on the high seas isn't cozy, but being inside the closed cabin of a sailboat on the high seas is.

And yes, long-sleeved T-shirts are definitely A Thing. Whenever shalmestere tries to buy me a T-shirt because it has a cute design on it, I ask for a long-sleeved one because I have more short-sleeved T-shirts than I can possibly wear in a year (and she has at least twice as many). And because often it's not available long-sleeved, so that's one less shirt for me to keep track of.

[jack]

Hm. I think it still counts as cozy if you take emotional comfort from something that WOULD keep you warm, or makes you pleasantly warm even if you're not cold to start with, like cuddling into a giant nest of blankets.

But also, I've tried to transition away from "you are wrong and your definition is wilfully perverse" to "oh?! maybe it's regional" :)

[conuly]

If my sister was some stranger who lived in some other part of the country, maybe it would be regional. She's my sister, and I'll call her willfully perverse if I want to.

[wendelah1]

Like most words in English, "cozy" carries more than one connotation/meaning.

[conuly]

Yeah, Jenn's and mine, and there can only be one. What's the point of having a sister if you can't be correct?

[greghousesgf]

I own several long sleeved t shirts.

[conuly]

At any rate, this shirt had short sleeves.

[darkoshi]

I answered No on the 2nd one because the day may be warm outside, but you could be in a cold building. Or a cold cave.

But I can't easily imagine a T-shirt being cozy as in enough to make one feel pleasantly warm & protected from the cold. Compared to having no shirt on at all, I suppose it might initially feel cozy, but still, that wouldn't last long. Unless it's hardly cool at all, in which case cozy doesn't seem the right work to me.

But I can also see it being used as a synonym for comfy. Or "mentally" cozy.

[lavendertook]

I think of cozy as an adjective as synonymous with comfy and more to do with softness and nested than warmth--maybe because warmth often isn't comfortable for me? So I can relate to well softened fabric as being cozy and I definitely would make the distinction between cozy t-shirts and non-cozy t-shirts because I hate the heavier stiffer cottons so many t-shirts come in. I think there's been a linguistic shift with cozy as a noun as well, since it's applied to fabric covers of many things used more as dust covers and aesthetic/cute covers than for keeping warmth in as it is for a teapot. Maybe the verbal shift for some of us goes in tandem with that?

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cozy says "enjoying or affording warmth and ease : SNUG"

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cozy says "Snug, comfortable, and warm".

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cozy says "snugly warm and comfortable"
(Note: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/snugly says "warmly comfortable or cozy")

https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/cozy lists 'cool' as an antonym of 'cozy'.

.... therefore, a loose (not snug) and cool (not warm) t-shirt may indeed be comfy, but not technically cozy. On the other hand, coziness is extremely subjective, as are both snugness and coolness, so if Jenn says her t-shirt is cozy, well.... she's the one who'd know.

[conuly]

If I wanted dictionaries and logic, I wouldn't've posted a poll :D

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Dictionaries and logic be all I've got to answer with.