cootn.1
/kuːt/, U.S. /kut/ 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.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > order Charadriiformes > family Alcidae (auks) > [noun] > member of genus Uria (guillemot)
coot1382
murre1578
scout1596
guillem1603
willock1606
kiddaw1674
sea-hen1676
guillemot1678
loom1694
lavy1698
foolish guillemot1776
willy1780
turr1794
tinkershere1799
strany1804
spratter1863
bacalao-bird1865
tinker1880
1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) Lev. xi. 16 An ostriche, and a nyȝt crowe, and a coote, and an hawke.
1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomew de Glanville De Proprietatibus Rerum (1495) xii. xxvi. 429 The Cote highte Mergulus and hath that name of ofte doppynge and plungynge.
1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomew de Glanville De Proprietatibus Rerum (1495) xii. xxvi. 429 It tokenyth moost certaynly full stronge tempeste in the see yf Cotes fle cryenge to the clyffes.
1775 S. Johnson Journey W. Islands 38 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.]
1885 C. Swainson Provinc. Names Brit. 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.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > order Gruiformes > [noun] > family Rallidae (rail) > genus Fulica > fulica atra (coot)
bald-coota1300
water crowa1398
cootc1440
bell-kitea1525
devil1580
the world > animals > birds > order Gruiformes > [noun] > family Rallidae (rail) > genus Fulica
coot1891
the world > animals > birds > order Gruiformes > [noun] > family Rallidae (rail) > genus Fulica > fulica americana (American coot)
water hen1704
Blue Peter1709
flusterer1709
coot1891
a1300 Gloss. W. de Biblesw. in Wright Voc. 165 Une blarye, a balled cote.]
c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 95 Coote, byrde [MS. K, cote brydde], mergus, fullica.
1483 Cath. Angl. 87 A Cute [MS. A, Cuytt], fulica, mergus.
1486 Bk. St. Albans F vj b A Couert of cootis.
a1529 J. Skelton Phyllyp Sparowe (?1545) sig. B.iii The doterell that folyshe pek And also the mad coote with a balde face to toote.
1580 C. Hollyband Treasurie French Tong Foulque, a bird called a Coute.
1604 M. Drayton Owle sig. F 2 The Braine-bald Coot.
1709 J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 149 Black Flusterers... Some call these the great bald Coot.
a1763 W. Shenstone Odes (1765) 154 Where coots in rushy dingles hide.
1789 J. Morse Amer. Geogr. 59 Upwards of one hundred and thirty American birds have been enumerated..[including] the bald coot.
1855 Ld. Tennyson Brook in Maud & Other Poems 102 I come from haunts of coot and hern.
1891 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 12 Mar. 4/1 Twelve redheads, one bald pate and a coot were secured during the day.
1898 E. E. Morris Austral Eng. 16/1 Bald-Coot, a bird-name, Porphyrio melanotus, Temm.; Blue, P. bellus, Gould.
1928 D. 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).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > hair > hair of head > [adjective] > having no
calloweOE
baldc1386
as bald (bare, black) as a coot1430
forehead-bald1530
pilled-pated1542
bald-pate1578
bald-headed1580
bald-pated1606
bald-head1820
baldish1833
tonsured1855
pollard1856
thin on top1869
slap-headed1994
1430 J. Lydgate tr. Hist. Troy ii. xv And yet he was as balde as is a coote.
a1536 W. Tyndale Expos. 1 John in Wks. (1849) II. 224 The body..is made as bare as Job, and as bald as a coot.
1624 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy (ed. 2) iii. iii. i. ii. 468 I haue an old grimme sire to my husband, as bald as a cout.
1687 Honour of Taylors v. 9 They poled him as bare as a Coot, by shaving off his Hair.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory 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.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > order Gruiformes > [noun] > family Rallidae (rail) > genus Rallus > rallus aquaticus (water rail)
raila1450
coot1547
brook ouzel1611
bidcock1622
water rail1655
runner1668
water crake1676
bilcock1678
velvet runner1678
skiddy1787
fen-cock1880
1547 W. Salesbury Dict. Eng. & Welshe Mwyalch y dwr [lit. ‘ouzel of the water’: cf. ‘Brook ouzel’ = Water-rail (Swainson, 176)], A cote.
1847–78 J. O. Halliwell Dict. Archaic & Provinc. Words Coot, the Water-hen.
1869 J. C. Atkinson Peacock's Gloss. Dial. Hundred of Lonsdale Coot, the water-hen.
1885 C. Swainson Provinc. Names Brit. Birds 176 Water-rail..Skitty coot (Devon, Cornwall).
1885 C. Swainson Provinc. Names Brit. Birds 178 Moor Hen..Cuddy. Moor coot. Kitty coot (Dorset).
4. figurative [Cf. 2b ] A silly person, simpleton. (colloquial, dialect, and U.S.)
ΚΠ
1766 E. Buys Sewel's Compl. Dict. Eng. & Dutch 138/2 A very coot, (or fool).
1794 Gazette of U.S. (Philadelphia) 17 Jan. But Satan was not such a coot To sell Judea for a goat.
1824 Hist. Gaming Houses 44 in Compl. Hist. Murder Mr. Weare The poor plucked pigeon (now become a Bald Coot) lost his reason.]
1848–60 J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms Coot..is often applied by us to a stupid person; as, ‘He is a poor coot’.
a1852 F. M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers (1883) ix. 33 He's an amazin' ignorant old coot.
a1860 Margaret 134 Little coot! don't you know the Bible is the best book in the world?
1929 W. J. Smyth Girl from Mason Creek i. 17 You're a clumsy coot.
1963 Daily Mail 26 Aug. 4/2 Masters call boys ‘coots’ and boys call each other ‘nits’.
Compounds
† coot-foot n. Obsolete a name given by some to the Phalarope. coot-footed adj. 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 n. a name given by some to the Fin-foot or Sun-grebe Heliornis.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > order Charadriiformes > [noun] > family Phalaropodidae > phalaropus fulicarus (red phalarope)
coot-footed tringa1758
whale-bird1771
red phalarope1776
red lobefoot1819
red coot-foot1828
1758 G. Edwards in Philos. Trans. 1757 (Royal Soc.) 50 255 I chuse, by way of distinction, to name it the coot-footed tringa.
1776 T. Pennant Brit. Zool. (ed. 4, octavo) II. ii. 491 Grey Phalarope..Grey Coot footed Tringa.
Draft additions June 2014
Chiefly English regional. as lousy as a coot: heavily infested with lice; filthy, dirty.
ΚΠ
a1864 J. Clare in E. Robinson & R. Fitter John Clare's Birds (1982) 89 These birds are subject to lice which is so common to them that it has grown into a saying that any thing filthy is ‘as lousey as a coot’.
1877 E. Peacock Gloss. Words Manley & Corringham, Lincs. at Coot As lousy as a coot.
1915 Zoologist 19 157 In Kent it is a common expression, ‘As lousy as a Coot!’ I recently saw four of these birds shot, and in every case vermin, in appearance like small lice, were found on the dead birds.
1959 Blackwood's Mag. Aug. 54/1 He hasn't had a wash for months and I'll bet he's as lousy as a coot.
a2007 F. Britt in C. Simmons Grampy's War (2009) 175 We had been in and out of Italian farms; sleeping in barns, we were as lousy as coots.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
cootn.2
/kuːt/, U.S. /kut/, Scottish English /kut/ Scottish.
1. The ankle-joint.
ΚΠ
a1513 W. Dunbar Flyting in Poems (1998) I. 208 For rerd of the and rattling of thy butis..Sum claschis the, sum cloddis the on the cutis.
1681 S. Colvil Mock Poem (1751) 17 Some had hoggars, some straw boots, Some uncover'd legs and coots.
a1810 R. Tannahill Poems (1846) 81 Whyles o'er the coots in holes he plumped.
1818 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 3 531 With feet, with cuits, unshod—but clean.
2. The fetlock of a horse.
ΚΠ
1681 S. Colvil Mock Poem (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, originally a knuckle-bone used by children in playing, as in Middle Dutch cote ‘osselet du bout des piedz de bestes, de quoy jouent les enfants, astragalus, talus’ (Plantijn): see also Grimm, Köte 3.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > that which is unimportant > of little importance or trivial
gnatc1000
ball play?c1225
smalla1250
triflec1290
fly1297
child's gamec1380
motec1390
mitec1400
child's playc1405
trufferyc1429
toyc1450
curiosity1474
fly-winga1500
neither mass nor matins1528
boys' play1538
nugament1543
knack?1544
fable1552
nincety-fincety1566
mouse1584
molehill1590
coot1594
scoff1594
nidgery1611
pin matter1611
triviality1611
minuity1612
feathera1616
fillip1621
rattle1622
fiddlesticka1625
apex1625
rush candle1628
punctilio1631
rushlight1635
notchet1637
peppercorn1638
petty John1640
emptiness1646
fool-fangle1647
nonny-no1652
crepundian1655
fly-biting1659
pushpin1660
whinny-whanny1673
whiffle1680
straw1692
two and a plack1692
fiddle1695
trivial1715
barley-strawa1721
nothingism1742
curse1763
nihility1765
minutia1782
bee's knee1797
minutiae1797
niff-naff1808
playwork1824
floccinaucity1829
trivialism1830
chicken feed1834
nonsensical1842
meemaw1862
infinitesimality1867
pinfall1868
fidfad1875
flummadiddle1882
quantité négligeable1885
quotidian1902
pipsqueak1905
hickey1909
piddle1910
cream puff1920
squat1934
administrivia1937
chickenshit1938
cream puff1938
diddly-squat1963
non-issue1965
Tinkertoy1972
1594 (a1555) D. Lindsay Hist. Squyer Meldrum l. 294, in Wks. (1931) I. 154 Ȝour crakkis I count thame not ane cute.
a1600 A. Montgomerie Misc. Poems xlvi I count not of my lyf a cute.
a1605 A. Montgomerie Sonn. (1886) xlvi I count ȝour cunning is not worth a cute.
a1627 A. Craig Pilgrime & Heremite (1631) sig. A3v I care not a cuit for her sake to bee slayne.
Compounds
coot-bone n. ankle-bone, knuckle-bone, esp. as used to play with.
ΚΠ
1648 H. Hexham Groot Woorden-boeck Pickelen, to Play at Coot-bone as boyes doe.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
cootn.3
/kuːt/, U.S. /kut/ Military slang. Now historical.
A louse. Cf. cootie n.2 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > subclass Pterygota > [noun] > division Exopterygota or Hemimetabola > group Anoplura > order Siphunculata > member of genus Pediculus (louse) > pediculus corporis (body-louse)
body louse1545
crumb1863
typhus louse1910
coot1915
cootie1917
pants rabbits1917
1915 H. Chapin Let. 7 Sept. in Soldier & Dramatist (1917) 270 Loud cries—Willet very pale and excited grappling with an enormous ‘coot’ (otherwise louse).
1916 P. MacGill Red Horizon 196 When I get the beer I'll capture a coot, a big bull coot, an' make 'im drunk.
1918 F. P. Adams Cootie's Garden Verses in Stars & Stripes 26 Apr. 4/3 A soldier boy should never swear When coots are in his underwear.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
cootv.1
? Obsolete.
intransitive. Of tortoises: To copulate.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > reptiles > order Chelonia (turtles and tortoises) > [verb (intransitive)] > copulate (of tortoises)
coot1667
1667 H. Stubbe in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 2 500 The Tortoises..coot for fourteen daies together.
1699 W. Dampier Voy. & Descr. Index sig. E2v When they Coot or couple.
Derivatives
ˈcooting n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > reptiles > order Chelonia (turtles and tortoises) > [noun] > tortoise or land turtle > copulating of
cooting1750
1750 G. Hughes Nat. Hist. Barbados 309 In cooting-time.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online September 2018).
cootv.2
/kuːt/, U.S. /kut/ local.
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.
ΚΠ
1892 Correspt. 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.
Derivatives
ˈcooted adj.
ΚΠ
1811 T. Davis Gen. View Agric. Wilts. (new ed.) 265 Hay-ricks are..sometimes oblong with cooted ends, not gable ends.
ˈcooting n.
ΚΠ
1892 Correspt. at Mere, Wilts. 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.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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