Cowardice

How to spell cowardice

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce cowardice

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cowardice mean?

1. nounA shameful lack of courage when facing danger, pain, or difficulty.

Cowardice in a sentence

• Abandoning his colleagues during the crisis was an act of pure cowardice.

• The report condemned the management's cowardice in refusing to confront the problem.

Where does cowardice come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Old French couardise, built on couard or coart, the word for a coward. That French term came from coe, meaning 'tail', which itself descended from the Latin cauda 'tail'. The image behind it is vivid and helps explain the meaning: a frightened animal turning tail and fleeing, or a dog slinking off with its tail tucked between its legs. English borrowed the word during the 1200s, and the abstract noun took the ending -ise, later settled as -ice, marking the state or quality of being a coward. That same -ice ending appears in 'justice' and 'malice', and remembering it is built on the whole word 'coward' plus -ice keeps the spelling clear.

How the word is built

• coward (from Old French coart: one who turns tail)
• -ice (noun-forming suffix meaning state or quality)