| 释义 |
▪ I. coot, n.1|kuːt|
Forms: 4–7 cote, coote, (5 cute, cuytt, 6–7 cout(e), 7– coot.
[ME. cote, coote, corresp. to Du. koet (recorded c 1600); a Low German word, the earlier history of which is unknown.
The long o of ME. cōte, evidenced also by the Du. form, which implies MDu. *cōte, coete, makes impossible the conjecture that the word is connected with Welsh cwt short, which is on other grounds inadmissible. Prof. Newton thinks that there is a connexion between coot and scoot or scout, another name of the guillemot, and allied sea-fowl; but the early history of the latter is obscure.]
1. A name originally given vaguely or generically to various swimming and diving birds. In many cases it seems to have been applied to the Guillemot (Uria troile), the Zee-koet or Sea-coot of the Dutch.
1382Wyclif Lev. xi. 16 An ostriche, and a nyȝt crowe, and a coote, and an hawke. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xii. xxvi. (1495) 429 The Cote highte Mergulus and hath that name of ofte doppynge and plungynge. Ibid., It tokenyth moost certaynly full stronge tempeste in the see yf Cotes fle cryenge to the clyffes. 1773Johnson Journ. Scot., Slanes Castle, One of the birds that frequent this rock [Buchan Ness] has..its body not larger than a duck's, and yet lays eggs as large as those of a goose. This bird is by the inhabitants named a Coot. That which is called Coot in England is here a Cooter. [This is some error: no such name is known.] 1885Swainson Prov. Names Birds 218 Guillemot..Quet (Aberdeen). [Cf. Queit (Aberd.) = Coot in Jamieson.]
2. a. Afterwards restricted in literary use to the Bald Coot (Fulica atra, family Rallidæ), Meer-koet of the Dutch, a web-footed bird inhabiting the margins of lakes and still rivers, having the base of the bill extended so as to form a broad white plate on the forehead (whence the epithet bald); in U.S. applied to the allied F. Americana; and generically extended to all the species of Fulica.
[a1300Gloss. W. de Biblesw. in Wright Voc. 165 Une blarye, a balled cote.] c1440Promp. Parv. 95 Coote, byrde [MS. K, cote brydde], mergus, fullica. 1483Cath. Angl. 87 A Cute [MS. A, Cuytt], fulica, mergus. 1486Bk. St. Albans F vj b, A Couert of cootis. a1529Skelton P. Sparowe 408 The doterell, that folyshe pek, And also the mad coote, With a balde face to toote. 1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Foulque, a bird called a Coute. 1604Drayton Owle 941 The Brain-bald Coot. 1709J. Lawson Voy. Carolina 149 Black Flusterers... Some call these the great bald Coot. a1763Shenstone Odes (1765) 154 Where coots in rushy dingles hide. 1789Morse Amer. Geogr. 59 Upwards of one hundred and thirty American birds have been enumerated..[including] the bald coot. 1855Tennyson Brook 23, I come from haunts of coot and hern. 1891Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 12 Mar. 4/1 Twelve redheads, one bald pate and a coot were secured during the day. 1898Morris Austral Eng. 16/1 Bald-Coot, a bird-name, Porphyrio melanotus, Temm.; Blue, P. bellus, Gould. 1928D. Cottrell Singing Gold i. ii. 16, I might see..a red-legged blue baldcoot, glittering like metal.
b. Proverbial phrases. as bald (bare, black) as a coot; as stupid as a coot (this and the epithet ‘mad coot’ may have originally applied to the Foolish Guillemot).
1430Lydg. Chron. Troy. ii. xv, And yet he was as balde as is a coote. a1536Tindale Exp. 1 John Wks. (Parker Soc.) II. 224 The body..is made as bare as Job, and as bald as a coot. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iii. i. ii. (1651) 599 I have an old grim sire to my husband, as bald as a cout. 1687Hist. Sir J. Hawkwood v. 9 They poled him as bare as a Coot, by shaving off his Hair. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 272/1 The Proverb, as black as the Coot.
3. Locally applied (with distinctive additions) to the Water-rail and Water-hen or Gallinule.
1547Salesbury Welsh Dict., Mwyalch y dwr [lit. ‘ouzel of the water’: cf. ‘Brook ouzel’ = Water-rail (Swainson, 176)], A cote. 1847–78Halliwell, Coot, the Water-hen. 1869Lonsdale Gloss., Coot, the water-hen. 1885Swainson Provinc. Names Birds 176 Water-rail..Skitty coot (Devon, Cornwall). Ibid. 178 Moor Hen..Cuddy. Moor coot. Kitty coot (Dorset).
4. fig. [Cf. 2 b.] A silly person, simpleton. (colloq., dial., and U.S.)
1766Sewel & Buys Compl. Dict., Eng. & Dutch 138/2 A very coot, (or fool). 1794Gazette of U.S. (Philad.) 17 Jan. (Th.), But Satan was not such a coot To sell Judea for a goat. [1824Hist. Gaming 44 The poor plucked pigeon (now become a Bald Coot) lost his reason.] 1848–60Bartlett Dict. Amer., Coot..is often applied by us to a stupid person; as, ‘He is a poor coot’. a1852F. M. Whitcher Widow Bedott P. (1883) ix. 33 He's an amazin' ignorant old coot. a1860Margaret 134 (Bartlett) Little coot! don't you know the Bible is the best book in the world? 1929W. Smyth Girl from Mason Creek i. 17 You're a clumsy coot. 1963Daily Mail 26 Aug. 4/2 Masters call boys ‘coots’ and boys call each other ‘nits’.
5. Comb., as † coot-foot, a name given by some to the Phalarope; coot-footed a., having feet like a coot's; hence † coot-footed tringa, a name given by Edwards to the red or grey Phalarope Phalaropus fulicarius; coot-grebe, a name given by some to the Fin-foot or Sun-grebe Heliornis.
1757Edwards in Phil. Trans. L. 255, I chuse, by way of distinction, to name it the coot-footed tringa. 1768Pennant Zool. (1812) II. 126 Red Phalarope..This is the red coot footed tringa of Edwards.
▪ II. coot, n.2 Sc.
Also cuit, cute |køt|.
[A com. Low German word, found in Sc. since c 1500: cf. MDu. cōte, cöte, Flem. keute, Du. koot fem., knuckle-bone; East Fris. kote, kôt ankle-joint, ankle; OFris. kâte joint, knuckle; MLG. kote, LG. kote, köte, also in mod.G. in sense ‘pastern-joint, fetlock’: see Grimm.]
1. The ankle-joint.
1508Dunbar in Flyting 232 Ffor rerd of the, and rattling of thy butis..Sum claschis the, sum cloddis the on the cutis. 1681S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 17 Some had hoggars, some straw boots, Some uncover'd legs and coots. a1810Tannahill Poems (1846) 81 Whyles o'er the coots in holes he plumped. 1818Blackw. Mag. III. 531 With feet, with cuits, unshod—but clean.
2. The fetlock of a horse.
1681S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 81 Rub my horse-belly and his coots, And when I get them, dight my boots.
3. A thing of small value; a trifle.
Perhaps, orig. a knuckle-bone used by children in playing, as in MDu. cote ‘osselet du bout des piedz de bestes, de quoy jouent les enfants, astragalus, talus’ (Plantijn): see also Grimm, Köte 3.
1550Lyndesay Sqr. Meldrum 294 Your crakkis I count thame not ane cute. a1605Montgomerie Sonn. xlvi. (1886), I count ȝour cunning is not worth a cute. ― Misc. Poems xlvi, I count not of my lyf a cute. 1631A. Craig Pilgr. & Hermite 9, I care not a cuit for her sake to bee slayne.
4. Comb., as coot-bone, ankle-bone, knuckle-bone, esp. as used to play with.
1648–60Hexham Dutch Dict., Pickelen, to Play at Coot-bone as boyes doe.
▪ III. coot, v.1 ? Obs.
intr. Of tortoises: To copulate. Hence ˈcooting vbl. n.
1667H. Stubbe in Phil. Trans. II. 500 The Tortoises..coot for fourteen daies together. 1699W. Dampier Voy. II. Index s.v. Turtle, When they Coot or Couple. 1750G. Hughes Barbadoes 309 In cooting-time.
▪ IV. coot, v.2 local.|kuːt|
[Deriv. obscure: some associate it with cote in dove-cote, bell-cote.]
To slope back the upper part of the gable of a house, the end of a hay-rick, etc., so as to form a ‘pavilion’ or ‘tabernacle’ roof. Hence ˈcooted, ppl. a., ˈcooting, vbl. n.
1813Davis Agric. Wilts 258–268 (in Archæol. Rev. Mch. 1888) Hay-ricks are..sometimes oblong with cooted ends, not gable ends. 1892Correspt. at Mere, Wilts. A rick or cottage has its ends ‘cooted’ or ‘cooted in’, when instead of being carried up perpendicularly to the ridge, they are so carried up only to the same height as the side-walls, and then sloped back. Sometimes the ends are carried perpendicularly to a greater height than the sides, and then sloped back: this is called half-cooting... Gable-end ricks are rarely seen here, the general practice being to coot them in.
▪ V. coot(e
obs. f. coat, cot. |