cobarde

Forms

cobarde m or f (masculine and feminine plural cobardes)^[1] Old Spanish usually wrote covarde;^[1] covardo is secured by rhyme in the Libro de Alexandre and Juan Ruiz.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish covarde, borrowed from Old French coart (modern French couard), or perhaps from the corresponding Occitan form.^[2][3][4][1] The Old French adjective is formed from coe (“tail”) with the suffix -ard, probably because a coward turns tail and runs.^[2][3][1] The noun goes back to Latin cauda (“tail”), in Vulgar Latin cōda.^[5][6] De Vaan traces it to Proto-Italic *kaudā.^[7]

Spitzer thought the word had first meant “hare”, an animal with a very short tail, and Gillet proposed Late Latin caudātus (“docked”), and so “castrated”;^[8][9][10] Corominas rejects both explanations as unnecessary.^[2] Italian codardo and Catalan covard are probably Gallicisms too, since the suffix is less popular in those languages than in French, where the word is frequent from the Chanson de Roland on; English coward has the same source.^[2] Covarrubias derived it from cueva (“cave”), because the coward hides like a rabbit in its burrow, and the Academy's dictionaries of 1884 and 1899 from the Italian word.^[8][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit without a later witness is the Escorial manuscript of the Poridat de poridades, of about 1250: a king should be firm, & que non sea couarde nin medroso de flaca alma “and not cowardly nor fearful, weak of soul”.^[11] Corominas's first record is the Calila e Dimna of 1251, known from a later copy, beside covardo in the Libro de Alexandre.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish already used the word of people and animals without courage: a hunting treatise of Alfonso X's court says hawks become couardas if they are fed the wrong birds, and the Donzella Teodor compares a cowardly man to a hare.^[12][11] Spellings with ⟨b⟩ appear in the Alfonsine Crónica general and in Alonso de Palencia, and cobarde prevailed in modern Spanish.^[2] Nebrija rendered it with Latin ignavus and iners.^[13]

From the 1869 to the 1899 edition the Academy also gave a figurative sense, of weak and short sight.^[14][9][10] Today the word also qualifies an act done out of cowardice, such as an attack on a defenceless victim.^[4][15] Regional senses include land that yields little, in Honduras, and something of poor quality, in Cuba.^[16][17]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – the Poridat de poridades writes couarde.^[11]
• 1251 – the Calila e Dimna, Corominas's first record, with the noun cobardez.^[2][11]
• c. 1330 – cobardía in Juan Ruiz.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin ignavus and iners.^[13]
• 1539 – first record of acobardar, in Guevara.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives the word from cueva “cave”.^[8]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the sense of weak eyesight.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Italian codardo.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. cowardly, fainthearted: lacking the courage to face danger or risk; also as a noun, a coward.^[4][1]
2. Done out of cowardice: un ataque cobarde.^[4]
3. (Cuba) Of a thing: of poor quality.^[17]

Word family

• cobardía
• acobardar
• cobardemente
• cobardón
• cobardear

Related words

• French couard
• Italian codardo
• English coward

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 105
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cobarde
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cobarde
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. cobarde
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1548
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 471
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 251
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 233
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cobarde
12. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. cobarde
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 314
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 180
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cobarde
16. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 240
17. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cobarde