# 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 (surviving in northern dialect English argh).

### Pronunciation

* (UK) enPR: kou'əd, IPA: /ˈkaʊəd/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (US) enPR: kou'ərd, IPA: /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

* chicken
* scaredy pants
* yellowbelly
* baby
* big baby
* See also Thesaurus:coward

#### Derived terms

* cowardess
* cowardice
* cowardish
* cowardize
* cowardly
* cowardness
* cowardry
* cowardship
* cowardy
* God hates a coward

#### Translations
### 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[entine] 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

* Coward in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

## Middle English
### Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French coart; equivalent to Old French coe (“tail”) +‎ -ard. Compare taylarde.

#### Alternative forms

* couard, couward, cowart, cowerde, coword, cuward, kowarde

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈkuːard/, /ˈkɔu̯ard/

#### Noun

coward
* coward, knave
* (rare) idiot, simpleton

##### Related terms

* cowardie
* cowardise
* cowardly
* cowardnesse

##### Descendants

* English: coward
* Scots: cooart, coort

##### References

* “cǒuard, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

#### Adjective

coward
* cowardly
* (rare) stupid

##### Descendants

* English: coward

##### References

* “cǒuard, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

### Etymology 2
#### Noun

coward
* Alternative form of couherde