▪ I. cothe, coath, n. Obs. or dial.
(kəʊð)
Forms: 1 coðu, 1–3 coðe, 5 coth(e, kothe, 8–9 dial. couth, cooth, 9 caud, coad.
[OE. coðu, coðe disease, pestilence, affecting men or beasts.]
† 1. Sickness, disease, pestilence; an attack of illness, as swooning, the pains of childbirth, etc.
| c 1000 in Thorpe Hom. II. 546 (Bosw.) Seo coðu ðe læcas hataþ paralisin. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 234 Wiþ wambe coþum. 1086 O.E. Chron., Swylc coðe com on mannum..þæt mæniᵹe menn swulton. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 177 Cumeð coðe oðer qualm and michel þerof felleð. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 96/1 Cothe, or swownynge, sincopa. 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 173 Ne hap the wumman in ony kothe be And may returne and geyn lyf take. 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. 110 Hir cothis fel upon hir [Pope Joan] betwix the Collise and Seynt Clement Cherch. c 1460 Towneley Myst. 31 Thise wederes ar so hidus with many a cold coth. |
2. Now a disease of sheep and cattle; cf. coe. dial. [Cf. coed ppl. a. diseased.]
| [1041 O.E. Chron., Mycel orfes wæs..forfaren..þurh mistlice coða.] 1784–1815 Young Annals Agric., Caud, the rot in sheep. Cornw. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Cooth, a cold caught by a cow or horse. 1888 Edin. Rev. Oct. 512 Anthrax or coad in sheep and cattle. |
▪ II. cothe, v. dial.
(kəʊð)
Also coathe, cawthe.
[f. prec. n.]
1. intr. ‘To faint’ (Forby Voc. E. Anglia).
2. trans. To give (sheep) the ‘coe’ or rot.
| 1867 J. R. Wise New Forest (1880) 281 The springs in the New Forest are said ‘to cothe’ the sheep,—that is, to disease their livers. 1880 E. Cornw. Gloss. s.v. Cawed, A sheep affected by that disease elsewhere known as rot is cawed. In Dorset it is a-cothed. 1884 W. Morning News 20 Dec. 8/6 In 1879 there was a great loss among their flocks in Devon, a greater part of them being cawthed. |