couth1
[kooth]Facetious.
- showing or having good manners or sophistication; smooth: Sending her flowers would be a very couth thing to do.
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- good manners; refinement: to be lacking in couth.
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Origin of couth1
First recorded in 1895–1900; back formation from uncouth
couth2
[kooth]
- known or acquainted with.
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Origin of couth2
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for couth
Historical Examples
Al myten o 25 same inges bettere and more plentiuousely be couth 592 in e moue of e poeple at knowe al is.
Al myten o same inges bettere and more plentiuousely be couth in e moue of e poeple at knowe al is.
couth
- facetious refined
- archaic familiar; known
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Word Origin
Old English cūth known, past participle of cunnan to know; sense 1, back formation from uncouth
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for couth
adj.
Old English cuðe "known," past participle of cunnan (see can (v.1)), from Proto-Germanic *kunthaz (cf. Old Frisian kuth "known," Old Saxon cuth, Old High German kund, German kund, Gothic kunþs "known").
Died out as such 16c. with the emergence of could, but the old word was reborn 1896, with a new sense of "cultured, refined," as a back-formation from uncouth (q.v.). The Old English word forms the first element in the man's proper name Cuthbert, literally "famous-bright."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper