coward
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A lion coward.
See also: Coward
English
Etymology
From Middle English coward, from Old French coart, cuard ( > French couard), from coue (“tail”), coe + -ard (pejorative agent noun suffix); coue, coe is in turn from Latin cauda. The reference seems to be to an animal “turning tail”, or having its tail between its legs, especially a dog. Compare the expression tail between one's legs. Unrelated to English cower. Displaced native Old English earg (survived in northern dialect English argh).
Pronunciation
- (UK) enPR: kou'əd, IPA(key): /ˈkaʊəd/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- (US) enPR: kou'ərd, IPA(key): /ˈkaʊɚd/
Audio (US) (file)
- Hyphenation: co‧ward
- Homophone: cowered
Noun
coward (plural cowards)
- A person who lacks courage.
- c. 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act II, scene ii, page 117, column 1:
- Cowards dye many times before their deaths, / The valiant neuer taſte of death but once: […]
- 1856: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part II Chapter IV, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
- He tortured himself to find out how he could make his declaration to her, and always halting between the fear of displeasing her and the shame of being such a coward, he wept with discouragement and desire. Then he took energetic resolutions, wrote letters that he tore up, put it off to times that he again deferred.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
a person who lacks courage
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Adjective
coward (comparative more coward, superlative most coward)
- Cowardly.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes , book II, London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC:
- It is a coward and servile humour, for a man to disguise and hide himselfe under a maske, and not dare to shew himselfe as he is.
- c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act II, Scene 4,
- He rais’d the house with loud and coward cries.
- 1709, Matthew Prior, “Celia to Damon”, in Poems on Several Occasions, 2nd edition, London: Jacob Tonson, page 89:
- Invading Fears repel my Coward Joy;
And Ills foreseen the pleasant Bliss destroy.
- (heraldry, of a lion) Borne in the escutcheon with his tail doubled between his legs.
Verb
coward (third-person singular simple present cowards, present participle cowarding, simple past and past participle cowarded)
- (transitive, obsolete) To intimidate.
- 1820, John Chalkhill, Thealma and Clearchus:
- The first he coped with was their captain, whom / His sword sent headless to seek out a tomb. / This cowarded the valour of the rest, […]
References
Middle English
Etymology 1
Borrowed from Old French coart; equivalent to Old French coe (“tail”) + -ard. Compare taylarde.
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Noun
coward
Related terms
Descendants
References
- “cǒuard, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Adjective
coward
Descendants
- English: coward
References
- “cǒuard, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Etymology 2
Noun
coward
- Alternative form of couherde