coot
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#COOTCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#COOT cote, coote, cute, cuytt (“coot”), of uncertainCategory:English terms with unknown etymologies#COOT origin. Perhaps from an unrecorded Old EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Old English#COOTCategory:English terms derived from Old English#COOT word, or borrowed from Middle DutchCategory:English terms derived from Middle Dutch#COOT coet, cuut, kuut (“coot”) (whence modern Dutch koet and meerkoet (“coot”)). Possibly related to Middle High German kūz, kūze (modern German Kauz (“owl”)), Old English cȳta (“kite, bittern”) (whence English kite), ultimately from Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#COOT *kūts (“bird of prey”). See kite.
Noun
coot (plural coots)Category:English lemmas#COOTCategory:English nouns#COOTCategory:English countable nouns#COOTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#COOTCategory:Pages with entries#COOTCategory:Pages with 3 entries#COOT
- Any of various aquatic birds of the genus Fulica that are mainly black with a prominent frontal shield on the forehead.
- (UKCategory:British English#COOT, colloquialCategory:English colloquialisms#COOT) A foolish or eccentric fellow
- A silly cootCategory:English terms with collocations#COOT
- An old cootCategory:English terms with collocations#COOT
- A rich cootCategory:English terms with collocations#COOT
- 1918, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 190, numbers 35-43, page 109:
- Once more he thought aloud. / "Tom wouldn't lie to me, so it wasn't gin. Now, I wonder. I wonder if that old coot has got what they call 'delusions of grandeur'?"Category:English terms with quotations#COOT
- 1926, Don Marquis, The Old Soak: A Comedy in Three Acts, volume 2, page 84:
- Your clerks would come in and see you aswingin' and aswayin' there and one of them would say: "Well, the old coot's hung himself!"Category:English terms with quotations#COOT
- 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII:
- “You'll be able now to give it as your considered opinion that [Wilbert Cream] is as loony as a coot, Sir Roderick.” A pause ensued during which [the psychiatrist] appeared to be weighing this, possibly thinking back to coots he had met in the course of his professional career and trying to estimate their dippiness as compared with that of W. Cream.Category:English terms with quotations#COOT
Derived terms
- American coot (Fulica americana)
- Andean coot (Fulica ardesiaca)
- Caribbean coot (Fulica caribaea)
- Eurasian coot (Fulica atra)
- giant coot (Fulica gigantea)
- Hawaiian coot (Fulica alai)
- horned coot, Fulica cornuta)
- mascarene cootCategory:Entries missing English vernacular names of taxa#mascarene%20coot (Fulica newtoniCategory:Entries using missing taxonomic name (species)#Fulica%20newtoni)
- red-fronted coot (Fulica rufifrons)
- red-gartered coot (Fulica armillata)
- red-knobbed coot (Fulica cristata)
- sea coot (Melanitta spp.)
- white-winged coot (Fulica leucoptera)
Translations
See also
- (bird): fulicine
Etymology 2
Compare cootie.
Noun
coot (plural coots)Category:English lemmas#COOTCategory:English nouns#COOTCategory:English countable nouns#COOTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#COOTCategory:Pages with entries#COOTCategory:Pages with 3 entries#COOT
Derived terms
Anagrams
Category:en:Lice#COOTCategory:en:Rallids#COOTMiddle English
Noun
cootCategory:Middle English alternative forms#COOTCategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#COOTCategory:Pages with entries#COOTCategory:Pages with 3 entries#COOT
- alternative form of cote (“coat”)
Scots
Etymology
Noun
coot (plural coots)Category:Scots lemmas#COOTCategory:Scots nouns#COOTCategory:Scots entries with incorrect language header#COOTCategory:Pages with entries#COOTCategory:Pages with 3 entries#COOT
- The ankle.