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From: dacosta@prl.philips.nl (Paulo da Costa)
Subject: Re: Linguistic history of Mc & Mac in Scotland?
Message-ID: <dacosta.800266020@causus>
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References: <1995May10.135154.29062@onionsnatcorp.ox.ac.uk> <D8E4np.nB@midway.uchicago.edu> <goolsby-1105951001510001@port47.rain.org>
Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 08:07:00 GMT
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In <goolsby-1105951001510001@port47.rain.org> goolsby@rain.org (J Goolsby) writes:

>Doesn't coward mean excessively shy (nonconfrontational) rather than
>strong like a cow?

No. It's from OF 'coart', ultimately from Latin 'cauda', tail. Nothing
to do with cows at all.
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