1803: coward and '-ard' Nov 21, 2019

Following yesterday's post, while some words with '-ard', like 'dullard' or 'drunkard' are easy to parse, 'coward' does not come from 'cow'. It ultimately derives from the Latin 'cauda' meaning 'tail', in reference to an animal with its tail between its hind legs. This term is even found in heraldry to refer to the actual animal when it is posed like that. Moreover, the '-ard' suffix in those other words comes from 'hardy', literally meaning 'bold', like in 'foolhardy'.

For the parsing of 'bastard', click here.