Cowardice — From Old French to English | etymologist.ai
cowardice
/ˈkaʊ.ə.dɪs/·noun·c. 1250·Established
Origin
'Cowardice' comes from Latin 'cauda' (tail) — literally tail-tucking, an animal fleeing in fear.
Definition
Lack of bravery; excessive fear of danger or pain.
The Full Story
Old French13th centurywell-attested
From Old French 'couardise,' from 'couard' (coward, one who flees), from Latin 'cauda' (tail) with the pejorative agent suffix '-ard' (from Old High German '-hart,' originally 'hard, bold,' bleached to an agent suffix marking excess or habitual action in French). A coward is literally 'a tail-person' — one who turns and shows their tail in flight, like an animal fleeing with its tail tucked between its legs. Latin 'cauda' (tail) is of uncertain PIE origin but is widely
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A 'coward' is literally an animal with its tail between its legs. From Latin 'cauda' (tail), thesame root gave us 'coda' (the tail-end of a musical piece), 'queue' (a tail — a line of people), and 'cue' (from the tail of a billiard stick, or possibly from the queue of actors). Cowardice, codas, and queues areall
couard(Old French (coward — the direct source word))cauda(Latin (tail — the root image underlying coward))queue(English/French (a tail, a waiting line — from cauda))coda(English/Italian (musical tail, from Latin cauda))drunkard(English (same pejorative -ard suffix pattern))sluggard(English (same pejorative -ard suffix pattern))