Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication; refined: "Many picnics manage without this sophistication, but we like to be couth and feel that the delicacies of gracious living enhance the chances” ( John Gould).
- n. Refinement; sophistication: "The man has no couth” ( Los Angeles Times).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Knew; was able: an obsolete form of could.
- Known; well-known; usual; customary: an obsolete past participle of can.
Wiktionary
- adj. Marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication; cultured, refined.
- n. Social grace, sophistication; manners; refinement.
- adj. obsolete known, renowned
- v. Past participle of can
GNU Webster's 1913
- obsolete Could; was able; knew or known; understood.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (used facetiously) refined
Etymologies
- From Middle English couth, doublet of could; from Old English cūþ ("known, plain, manifest, certain, well known, usual, noted, excellent, famous, intimate, familiar, friendly, related"), from Proto-Germanic *kunþaz (“known”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵen-, *ǵno- (“to know”). Cognate with Scots couth ("known, familiar"), Eastern Frisian cut ("known"), Dutch kond ("known"), German kund ("known"), Icelandic kuðr, kunnur ("known"), Gothic 𐌺𐌿𐌽𐌸𐍃 (kunþs, "known"). (Wiktionary)
- Back-formation from uncouth. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“My word verification was "couth" which beats being uncouth.”
“I say show NO mercy, no "couth" (?), no restraint on obscenity.”
“The development of the main senses took place in OF., and is not free from obscurity (cf., however, couth and known).”
“The party of no class, anything goes is turning profanity and lack of couth into money to begat more no class.”
“He can't even pretend to have any manners or couth!”
“Mind you, I'm couth enough to refrain from biting my toenails, but that's also a flexibility issue.”
“If you don't approve of how I've done something — — the website, for example — — there is a couth and appropriate recourse which will allow you to express your opinion.”
“Benny might refer to Rigoletto as “that fatso with the sword” after Shrimp tries to couth him up by giving him opera tickets.”
“When used with young children, however, sarcasm loses its couth and is often reduced to callousness.”
The Huffington Post: Signe Whitson: "Very Funny!" Why Sarcasm Is No Laughing Matter for Kids
“Because, while we progressives have our moments of frustration and our occasional lack of couth, there is nothing I can think of that compares to the sick, savage sign that the teabaggers were waving in Washington.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘couth’.
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Deprefixed words
A list of words you more frequently hear used with prefixes than without.
clement, witting, ravel, whelm, fettered, licit, couth, bridled, wieldy, kempt, ingenuous, iterate and 116 more...
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WF - list of EN back-formations
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_back-formations
aborigine, accrete, acculturate, admix, admixture, adolesce, adsorb, adulate, advect, aesthete, air-condition, anticline and 212 more...
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Baby Got Back-Formations
"A new word created by removing an affix from an already existing word, as vacuum clean from vacuum cleaner, or by removing what is mistakenly thought to be an affix, as pea from the earlier Englis...
resurrect, enthuse, couth, donate, emote, greed, isolate, manipulate, orate, prequel, spectate, upholster and 94 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
Great Race Horse Names2
unwritten, sizemeup, brickadier general, hostile fire, half a splash, the key to time, the big ugly, hounded, runs with scissors, bedazzler, syncopation, monster love and 92 more...
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And another
retrocausality, brusque, gainsay, cheerio, jaundiced, chamois, caw, craw, fudge, bubbler, shebang, bolo and 244 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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roseandivy's list
mooncalf, wonted, gibbet, artless, noontide, blithe, glitterati, vorpal, soporific, moxie, pilfer, betwixt and between and 263 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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Evin290's Words
puerile, fastidious, blatherskite, folderol, femtosecond, redox, incarnadine, cerulean, genuflection, muslin, multitudinous, miasma and 517 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3251 more...
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Vocab
All the words I've come across whose definitions I did not know then.
aberration, abrogate, abscond, abstruse, acolyte, actuate, adulation, advert, aggrandize, aggro, ague, alimony and 273 more...
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Abbie's Words
salamander, victorian, pudgy, hippopotamus, fixin', pithy, decadent, scribble, hoi polloi, consternation, assiduously, engrossing and 26 more...
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sans prefix
cumber, fatigable, wieldy, ruly, prandial, humously, combobulate, couth, crepit, dain, prave, ert and 25 more...
Tweets
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