coistrel

American  

[koi-struhl] / ˈkɔɪ strəl /

noun

Archaic.

1. a scoundrel; knave.

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Etymology

Origin of coistrel

1570–80; Middle English custrell, apparently < Middle French coustillier, coustelier, one armed with a cou ( s ) telle dagger (feminine derivative of coutel knife < Latin cultellus; see -ier ²), with -r- perhaps from quystroun knave, page, scullion < Anglo-French ( Old French coistron < Vulgar Latin *coquistrō )

Example Sentences

The word is also confused with "coistrel" = "groom", "varlet"; cf.

From The Faerie Queene — Volume 01 by Spenser, Edmund

He was himself a lord of language and had made himself a coistrel gentleman and he had written Romeo and Juliet.

From Ulysses by Joyce, James

Now sure this coistrel makes me smile, To see his greedy gaping thus for gain, First hardly got, then kept with harder pain, As you ere long by proof shall see full plain.

From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 8 by Hazlitt, William Carew