A cottage is, typically, a small house. It may carry the connotation of being an old or old-fashioned building. In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cosy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. There are cottage-style dwellings in American cities that were built primarily for the purpose of housing slaves In places such as Canada, "cottage" carries no connotations of size (compare with vicarage or hermitage).