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coot

UK/kuːt/US/kuːt/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,511 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: coots

A coot is a black water bird with a white shield on its face. A pair of coots, coots on the lake, bald as a coot.

The white patch above the bill gave the phrase bald as a coot, which is older than any joke about hair. Coots are famously aggressive for their size and will fight over territory with their feet. Old coot is an affectionate insult for an old man.

Geni · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of coot

  1. 1nouncootA black water bird with a white shield on its face.C1

    “We watched the coots diving for weeds in the pond in the park.”

coot is a bird.

Where it comes from

Middle English cote is of unknown origin, possibly from Dutch. The bird has been called this for six hundred years.

  1. Proto-West Germanic

    *kūt — bird of prey

  2. Middle Dutch

    coet

  3. Middle English

    cote

  4. English, today

    coot

Built from

  • cuytt · Middle English — coot
  • kuut · Middle Dutch — coot
  • meerkoet · Dutch — coot

From Middle English cote, coote, cute, cuytt (“coot”), of unknown 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-West Germanic kūt (“bird of prey”). See kite.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Birds

Practise this word

coot in the wild

  • The Eurasian coot (Fulica atra), also known as the common coot or Australian coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae.

    Eurasian coot

  • The American coot (Fulica americana), also known as a mud hen or pouldeau, is a bird of the family Rallidae.

    American coot

  • Though commonly mistaken for ducks, American coots are only distantly related to ducks, belonging to a separate order.

    American coot

  • The red-knobbed coot or crested coot (Fulica cristata) is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae.

    Red-knobbed coot

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.