couth/uncouth

[Michael LaTorra <mikel -at- HUEY -dot- ACCUGRAPH -dot- COM>]

With regard to the topic of backformations, Sally Marquigny wrote:

>"Couth" is a backformation from "uncouth".  The AHD even lists it as a
>backformation.

This intrigued me, because I thought that "couth" was an old English
word.  So I went to my copy of Webster's (pub. 1979) and found the
following:

  couth - a. known [Archaic]

  uncouth - a. [Middle English; Anglo-Saxon] 1. unknown [Obs.].
            2. strange; not familiar [Rare]. 3. awkward; clumsy; ungainly.
            4. uncultured; crude; boorish. 5. rare; wonderful [Rare].


Live long & prosper,
Mike LaTorra

Documentation Supervisor
Accugraph Inc.
mikel -at- accugraph -dot- com
..........................................................................
The opinions expressed are my own, ][ "The superstitions of intellectuals
and not necessarily those of my    ][  are still superstitions -- and they
company -- but they probably       ][  have a lot of them.  The real ques-
should be.                         ][  tion is why we keep listening to
                                   ][  them after their nostrums have
                                   ][  failed time and time again."
                                   ][   -- Thomas Sowell
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