In modern use, a cottage is a simple dwelling, typically located in rural or semi-rural areas.

Originally in the Middle Ages, the huts housed agricultural workers and their families. Thus, the cabins were smaller peasant units. In an early period, a documentary reference to a cottage would usually mean not a small detached dwelling as today but a complete dwelling and farm (however small). Thus in the Middle Ages, the word "hut" (lat cotagium) seems to have meant not only a dwelling, but at least a dwelling (domus) and a granary (grangia), as well as, generally, a fenced piece of earth closed by a gate (portum).

Some examples of this can be found in the court rolls of the century. The cabin-type dwelling coined the Latin name: domum dicti cotagii, while the barn of the cabin was called grangia dicti cotagii.

Later, the word "cottage" may also have denoted small farms comprising outbuildings and farmland or forests. A cabin, in this sense, would typically include just a few acres of tilled land. In large areas of northern Spain, especially in Cantabria, this use is maintained for those rural buildings (called pasiegas cabins), linked to livestock, which were inhabited seasonally, during the transition between the lower areas of the valleys and the peaks.

Much later (from the 19th century onwards), the development of industry led to the development of weavers' huts "Weaver (craftsman)") and miners' huts.

The term 'cabin' usually refers to cabins. However, its use and scope may vary depending on the context in which it is used. For example, in certain places, such as Canada, cottages can have different sizes and complexities, and it is common to find homes of this type within cities. In contrast, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term cottage is used in North America to represent a summer residence (often on a large and sumptuous scale) in a watery setting or a place of health or pleasure with first recognized use dating to 1882, in reference to Bar Harbor in Maine.