coward

Etymology

From Middle English coward, from Old French coart, cuard ( > French couard), from coue (“tail”), coe + -ard (pejorative agent noun suffix); coue, coe is in turn from Latin cauda. The reference seems to be to an animal “turning tail”, or having its tail between its legs, especially a dog. Unrelated to English cower. Displaced native Old English earg.

noun

1. A person who lacks courage.
   Cowards dye many times before their deaths, / The valiant neuer taſte of death but once: […] c. 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act II, scene ii, page 117, column 1
   1856: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part II Chapter IV, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling He tortured himself to find out how he could make his declaration to her, and always halting between the fear of displeasing her and the shame of being such a coward, he wept with discouragement and desire. Then he took energetic resolutions, wrote letters that he tore up, put it off to times that he again deferred.

adj

1. Cowardly.
   c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act II, Scene 4, He rais’d the house with loud and coward cries.
   Invading Fears repel my Coward Joy; And Ills foreseen the pleasant Bliss destroy. 1709, Matthew Prior, “Celia to Damon”, in Poems on Several Occasions, 2nd edition, London: Jacob Tonson, page 89
2. (heraldry, of a lion) Borne in the escutcheon with his tail doubled between his legs.

verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To intimidate.
   The first he coped with was their captain, whom / His sword sent headless to seek out a tomb. / This cowarded the valour of the rest, […] 1820, John Chalkhill, Thealma and Clearchus