coot
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kuːt/
rhymes: -uːt
Forms: form: coots
Etymology: From Middle English cote, coote, cute, cuytt (“coot”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from an unrecorded Old English word, or borrowed from Middle Dutch coet, cuut, kuut (“coot”) (whence modern Dutch koet and meerkoet (“coot”)). Possibly related to Middle High German kūz, kūze (modern German Kauz (“owl”)), Old English cȳta (“kite, bittern”) (whence English kite), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *kūts (“bird of prey”). See kite.
Senses: glosses: Any of various aquatic birds of the genus Fulica that are mainly black with a prominent frontal shield on the forehead.
examples: text: A silly coot
text: An old coot
text: A rich coot
text: Once more he thought aloud. / "Tom wouldn't lie to me, so it wasn't gin. Now, I wonder. I wonder if that old coot has got what they call 'delusions of grandeur'?"
ref: 1918, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 190, numbers 35-43, page 109:
text: Your clerks would come in and see you aswingin' and aswayin' there and one of them would say: "Well, the old coot's hung himself!"
ref: 1926, Don Marquis, The Old Soak: A Comedy in Three Acts, volume 2, page 84:
text: “You'll be able now to give it as your considered opinion that [Wilbert Cream] is as loony as a coot, Sir Roderick.” A pause ensued during which [the psychiatrist] appeared to be weighing this, possibly thinking back to coots he had met in the course of his professional career and trying to estimate their dippiness as compared with that of W. Cream.
ref: 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII:
glosses: A foolish or eccentric fellow
Derived terms: sense: bird species
taxonomic: Fulica americana
word: American coot
sense: bird species
taxonomic: Fulica ardesiaca
word: Andean coot
sense: bird species
taxonomic: Fulica caribaea
word: Caribbean coot
sense: bird species
taxonomic: Fulica atra
word: Eurasian coot
sense: bird species
taxonomic: Fulica gigantea
word: giant coot
sense: bird species
taxonomic: Fulica alai
word: Hawaiian coot
sense: bird species
word: horned coot
sense: bird species
word: Fulica cornuta)
sense: bird species
taxonomic: Fulica newtoni
word: mascarene coot
sense: bird species
taxonomic: Fulica rufifrons
word: red-fronted coot
sense: bird species
taxonomic: Fulica armillata
word: red-gartered coot
sense: bird species
taxonomic: Fulica cristata
word: red-knobbed coot
sense: bird species
taxonomic: Melanitta spp.
word: sea coot
sense: bird species
taxonomic: Fulica leucoptera
word: white-winged coot
sense: other derived terms
word: bald as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: cootling
sense: other derived terms
word: cracked as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: crazy as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: daffy as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: daft as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: deaf as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: dizzy as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: drunk as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: gay as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: happy as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: loony as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: mad as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: old coot
sense: other derived terms
word: pissed as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: queer as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: rich coot
sense: other derived terms
word: silly as a coot
sense: other derived terms
word: simple as a coot
Related terms: sense: bird
word: fulicine