coward

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“
Madam, I-- no, I cannot tell her; my knees knock together: what a coward is a man who has lost his honor!

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun One who shows ignoble fear in the face of danger or pain.
  2. Word History
    A coward is one who "turns tail.” The word comes from Old French couart, coart, "coward,” and is related to Italian codardo, "coward.” Couart is formed from coe, a northern French dialectal variant of cue, "tail” (from Latin cōda), to which the derogatory suffix -ard was added. This suffix appears in bastard, laggard, and sluggard, to name a few. A coward may also be one with his tail between his legs. In heraldry a lion couard, "cowardly lion,” was depicted with his tail between his legs. So a coward may be one with his tail hidden between his legs or one who turns tail and runs like a rabbit, with his tail showing.

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Examples (50)

  • Michael Tolzmann (Defense Media Activity) notes that Dr. Loree K. Sutton (Army Brig Gen) explained that "toxic leadership" creates stigmas "that can kill" such as when "[a] n Army staff sergeant who had lost Soldiers in the war zone was called a coward, a wimp and a wuss form a leader when he mentioned he might need psychological help." —  Mikey Likes It!
  • Now this coward is applying pressure on Badawi also: —  WordPress.com News
  • The impulse to run away from danger, and the impulse to plunge recklessly into risks, are the two forms of temptation which lead to the more pronounced and prevalent vices THE VICE OF DEFECT Yielding to outward pressure, contrary to our own conviction of what is true and right, is moral cowardice.+--In early times the coward was the man who turned his back in battle. —  Practical Ethics
  • To-day the coward is the man who does differently when people are looking at him from what he would do if he were alone; the man who speaks what he thinks people want to hear, instead of what he knows to be true; the man who apes other people for fear they will think him odd if he acts like himself; the man who tries so hard to suit everybody that he has no mind of his own; the man who thinks how things will look, instead of thinking how things really are. —  Practical Ethics
  • And they say that if ever again a coward should be the laird of Singleton, that that old man will walk out there where he walked four centuries ago A dead silence followed the close of this story, and all eyes, by a sort of common instinct, were turned towards the head of the table. —  Boycotted And Other Stories
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

liar ·  traitor ·  scoundrel ·  villain ·  hypocrite ·  thief ·  wretch ·  knave ·  brute ·  fool ·  tyrant ·  drunkard

Used in the same contextWord Family

coward:   cowards
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French couard, from coue, tail, from Latin cauda.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English coward, couard, cueard (= Old Flemish kuwaerd = Provencal coart = Old Spanish couarde, cobarde, cobardo, Spanish cobarde = Portuguese cobarde, covarde = Italian codardo, a coward, cowardly; all these being apparently derived from or adapted from the Old French), from Anglo-French couard, couart, cuard, Old French couard (coüard), coward, couart, cuart, coart, French couard, a coward, orig. as an epithet of the timid hare (called la cowarde ou la court cowe, ‘the bobtail’; later Old Flemish kuwaerd, Middle English Cuwaert, Kywart, as the name of the hare in “Reynard, the Fox,” transitive by Caxton; Middle Latin cuardus, a hare), with allusion also perhaps to a cowed dog with its tail between its legs (cf. Old French lion couard, in heraldry, a lion with its tail between its legs), orig. an adjective, with the depreciative suffix -ard, ‘having a (short, drooping, or otherwise ridiculous) tail’ (cf. Old French couarde, feminine, a tail, couart, masculine, a rump or haunch, as of venison), from Old French coue, cowe, coe, F, queue = Provencal coa = Spanish Portuguese Italian coda, from Latin cauda, Late Latin Middle Latin also coda, tail: see cauda, cue, queue. The word coward has been more or less associated in English with cow, the animal (’one afraid of a cow,’ or ‘having the heart of a cow,’ whence the accommodation form cowheart: see cow, n., 3), with cowherd (assumed to be a timid person; whence the accommodation spelling of cowherd, cowheard), with cow, intimidate, and with cower, crouch as with fear.
  2. from Middle English cowarden, couarden, from Old French coarder, French couarder; from the noun.
 

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/ˈkaʊərd/
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