From Middle English couth (“familiar, known; evident, true; famous, respected, well-known; genteel, having good manners”), from Old English cūþ (“familiar, intimate, known, usual; certain, plain, manifest; famous, noted, well-known; excellent; friendly; related”), past participle of cunnan (“to be familiar with, know; can, to be able, know how”), from Proto-Germanic *kunnaną (“to be familiar with, know, recognize; to be able, know how”) (compare *kunþaz (“known”)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”). The word is cognate with Dutch kond (“known”), Saterland Frisian cut (“known”), Gothic 𐌺𐌿𐌽𐌸𐍃 (kunþs, “known”), Icelandic kuður, kunnur (“known”), Latin gnosco (“to know”), Old High German kund, chund, chunt, Middle High German kunt (modern German kund (“known”)), Old Saxon kūth, cûth, cuð (“known; famous, renowned”), Scots couth (“familiar, known”); and is a doublet of could.
Meanings
(obsolete) Familiar, known; well-known, renowned.
(Scotland) Variant of couthie. ▸ Agreeable, friendly, pleasant.
(Scotland) Variant of couthie. ▸ Comfortable; cosy, snug.
Squad leaders were responsible for doing periodic checks to make sure soldiers were living a couth lifestyle, as Joes would compete regularly to see whose room was nicer. 2012, La’Vez Robinson Sr., “Deutschland”, in On My Own: Putting the Past behind Me, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 203:
Marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication; cultured, refined.
So Dennis May thrilled me in a recent issue when he described Raymond Mays' 1939 E.R.A. racer as a "couth" little Merc-like model. 1943, Henry Sturmey, H. Walter Staner, The Autocar: A Journal Published in the Interests of the Mechanically Propelled Road Carriage, volume 88, London: Iliffe, Sons & Sturney, →OCLC, page 632, column 3:
[John] Dankworth's care over the shaping and presentation of his music led occasionally to complaints that it was clever, lightweight stuff, lacking the rough passion which many regarded as the mark of authentic jazz, a view summed up by the critic Kitty Grime in the much-quoted phrase "couth, kempt and shevelled". 2010 February 7, “Sir John Dankworth [obituary]”, in Tony Gallagher, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 Jan 2019:
Yet the dancers are beautiful, their cool movement has a couth simplicity, and there are moments when a gesture of almost absolute beauty stands transfixed in some transom of sublime comprehension. 1991, John Percival, editor, Dance and Dancers, London: Dance & Dancers Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 37:
es sofisticado, refinado (marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication — see also cultured, refined) · fi hienostunut (marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication — see also cultured, refined) · it lepido (marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication — see also cultured, refined) · fr raffiné (marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication — see also cultured, refined) · sh uglađen (marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication — see also cultured, refined) · sh ȍtm(j)en (marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication — see also cultured, refined) · fr sophistiqué (marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication — see also cultured, refined)
(uncountable, usually) Social grace, refinement, sophistication; etiquette, manners.
That man has no couth.
My daughters have long and inappropriately been members of the Committee to Reform Dad's Hygiene, taking me to task for my supposed lack of couth. 2004, W[illiam] Bruce Cameron, “How to Increase a Man’s Couth”, in How to Remodel a Man: Tips and Techniques on Accomplishing Something You Know Is Impossible but Want to Try Anyway, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN; republished as How to Remodel a Man: You Know It’s Impossible but You Want to Try Anyway, London: HarperCollins, 2005, →ISBN, page 62:
Couth and manners are intensely subjective concepts. Each culture has its own standards of acceptable table manners, for instance. 2005, Heidi Munan, Culture Shock!: Malaysia: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Culture Shock!), Portland, Or.: Graphics Art Center Pub. Co., →ISBN, page 86:
There is an aspect of the cultural conservative argument that sometimes drifts dangerously close to tha view, elitist to the core, as elitist as the New Class, as elitist as limousine liberalism: The public ain't got no couth. You can hear those old-fashioned elitist wheels spinning: Maybe we need a few government regulations to deal with the couth shortage. 1995, Ben[jamin] J[oseph] Wattenberg, “Those Darn Cultural Issues”, in Values Matter Most: How Democrats or Republicans or a Third Party Can Win and Renew the American Way of Life, Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, →ISBN, part 2 (What It’s Not), page 107:
You got no couth, Ed. You was raised no-count is what you were. No count and you ain't got a lick of couth. 2006, Mark Powell, Blood Kin: A Novel, Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, →ISBN, page 97:
(rare, uncountable, usually) A person with social graces; a refined or sophisticated person.
We transformed the uncouths into couths, the unkempts into kempts, the inerts into erts! We did it all by speaking to teen-agers on their own terms and in their own language. [1967, Bernice Fitz-Gibbon, Macy’s, Gimbels, and Me: How to Earn $90,000 a Year in Retail Advertising, New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 91:
I'm going to hit that "Gulf of Texas" beach with a bundle of couths and suaves because those Texas gals that hang around the big shrimp boats are used to good living. 1968 November, “C. R. Terror”, in Richard L. Anderson, editor, The MAC Flyer (USAF Recurring Publication; 62-5), volume XV, number 11, Scott Air Force Base, Ill.: Directorate of Safety, Headquarters Military Airlift Command, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 28, column 1:
Forms
Spelling
Features
Labels
Source
couths
Number=Plur
lexicographic
Translations (9)
fr raffinement (social grace, refinement, sophistication — see also refinement, sophistication) · fi hienostuneisuus (social grace, refinement, sophistication — see also refinement, sophistication) · de Manieren (social grace, refinement, sophistication — see also refinement, sophistication) · de gute Umgangsformen (social grace, refinement, sophistication — see also refinement, sophistication) · it lepòre (social grace, refinement, sophistication — see also refinement, sophistication) · cs uhlazenost (social grace, refinement, sophistication — see also refinement, sophistication) · sh uglađenost (social grace, refinement, sophistication — see also refinement, sophistication) · sh otm(j)enost (social grace, refinement, sophistication — see also refinement, sophistication) · fr sophistication (social grace, refinement, sophistication — see also refinement, sophistication)