coot

• IPA^(key): /kuːt/

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• Rhymes: -uːt

From Middle English cote, coote, cute, cuytt (“coot”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from an unrecorded Old English word, or borrowed from Middle Dutch 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-Germanic *kūts (“bird of prey”). See kite.

coot (plural coots)

1. Any of various aquatic birds of the genus Fulica that are mainly black with a prominent frontal shield on the forehead.
2. (colloquial) A foolish or eccentric fellow

   A silly coot

   An old coot

   A rich 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'?"

   • 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!"

   • 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.

• (bird): fulicine

Compare cootie.

coot (plural coots)

1. (slang) Body louse (Pediculus humanus).

• octo-, toco-, toco, Coto, coto

coot

1. Alternative form of cote (“coat”)

Compare Dutch koot, Flemish keute.

coot (plural coots)

1. The ankle.