cowardice

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cowardise, also couardise,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French couardise, also coardise and cuardise,^[6][3][7][8] formed from couard (“coward”) and the noun suffix -ise, from Latin -itia.^[6][7][9] The American Heritage Dictionary describes the French noun as an alteration of the older couardie,^[2] which the OED calls an earlier French equivalent, the source of the obsolete English cowardy.^[6] The Anglo-Norman form is recorded from 1160–74, in the sense of lack of bravery.^[10] Coward itself comes from coe (“tail”), from Latin cauda (“tail”) or its popular variant coda, with the pejorative suffix -ard; the tail may refer to an animal turning tail in flight or drawing its tail between its legs.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality of a coward, want of courage to face danger: about 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder,^[6][5] and about 1300 in Etymonline.^[7] Dictionary.com dates it to 1250–1300.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word also meant cowardly or unchivalrous behaviour, as when Trevisa's translation of Higden tells of a Roman knight reproved for cowardice.^[5] From about 1380 it could be used with a and in the plural, for a cowardly act.^[6] Chaucer used it twice.^[11] Johnson (1755) defined it as fear, habitual timidity and want of courage, quoting Spenser's Faerie Queene.^[12] In 1673 it was even applied to the weakness of wine, a use the OED marks rare and obsolete.^[6] Merriam-Webster also records the sense of a lack of resolve in the face of others' hostility, as in moral or mental cowardice.^[3][13] English once had the synonyms cowardness, cowardry and cowardship, all now obsolete.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – lack of courage to face danger, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[6][5][7]
• c. 1380 – a cowardly act, with a and in the plural, in the Wycliffite sermons.^[6]
• 1673 – of wine, weakness (rare, obsolete).^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Lack of courage in the face of danger, pain or difficulty; shameful fear or timidity: The deserters were charged with cowardice.^{[2][14][3][6]}
2. Lack of resolve when facing the hostility or disapproval of others: It was moral cowardice to stay silent at the meeting.^[3][13]

Related words

• coward
• cowardly
• coda

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins