cowardly

Etymology

It is formed from English coward + -ly,^[2][3][4][5] Middle English couardli,^[6][7] first as an adverb and much later as an adjective.^[2][3] The base is from Old French coart, also cuard,^[2][8][9] from coe (“tail”),^[8][3][2] from Latin cauda (“tail”), in a dialect variant cōda,^[8][3][10] with the suffix -ard.^[2][8] The OED explains the reference as either an animal turning tail or a frightened animal drawing its tail between its legs, and notes that Coart is the hare in the Old French “Reynard the Fox”.^[2][8] Ayto notes that the similar-looking cower is unrelated.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adverb, in a timid or base way: before 1375, in William of Palerne.^[6] The OED's first quotation is from Wyclif, about 1380,^[2] Etymonline has the late 14th century^[3] and Dictionary.com 1275–1325.^[11] The adjective, lacking courage, is first recorded in 1551, in R. Robinson's translation of More's Utopia.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

An Old English word with this meaning was earg, which also meant slothful.^[3] The Middle English Dictionary glosses the adverb as timidly, but also as basely, disgracefully or miserably,^[6] and a Morte d'Arthur of about 1450 has Than here to dye thus cowerdelye.^[3] The adjective followed in the mid-16th century, first of a person's character,^[2][4] and then of acts proceeding from fear, as in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, recorded before 1616.^[2] Johnson (1755) divided the adjective in the same way, into "fearful; timorous; pusillanimous" and "mean; befitting a coward", and still listed the adverb.^[12]

Timeline

• before 1375 – adverb, in a timid or base way.^[6] The OED's first quotation is from about 1380.^[2]
• 1551 – adjective, lacking courage.^[2][5]
• before 1616 – adjective, of an act, characteristic of a coward.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lacking courage; shamefully timid: The cowardly captain was first into the lifeboat.^[13][5][11]
2. Showing or befitting a coward; proceeding from fear: a cowardly letter left unsigned.^[5][2][11]

Adverb

1. In the manner of a coward; with base avoidance of danger.^[2][4][5]

Word family

• cowardliness

Related words

• coward
• cowardice
• coda
• cower

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes it from timid and timorous: a cowardly person is basely fearful when danger is present, a timid one lacks boldness even when there is no danger, and a timorous one exaggerates dangers or imagines them.^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ 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)
7. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins