cushat Chiefly Sc. and north. dial.
(ˈkʌʃət)
Forms: 1 c{uacu}scute, -scote, -sceote, 5 cowscott, -schote, 6 cowschet, kowschot, 6–7 coushot, 7, 9 cowshot, 8 cowshut, 8–9 cooscot, 9 cowscot; 6 cuschet, 8– cushat, 9 dial. cushie, cusha.
[OE. c{uacu}scute, -scote, -sceote (wk. fem.) has no cognates in the other Teutonic langs., and its etymology is obscure. The element scote, scute is app. a deriv. of scéotan (weak grade scut-, scot-) to shoot, and may mean ‘shooter, darter’: cf. sceotan in ælfric's Colloquy, glossed tructos ‘trouts’, app. in reference to their rapid darting motion; also cf. OHG. scoȥȥa str. f., shoot (of a plant). For the first part, c{uacu} cow offers no likely sense, and Prof. Skeat suggests that we may here have an echo of the bird's call = modern coo: this is doubtful. Others have taken the first part as OE. c{uacu}sc chaste, modest, pure; but the rest of the word then remains unexplained.]
The wood-pigeon or ring-dove.
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 829 Palumbes, cuscutan [Erfurt cuscotae, Corpus cuscote]. c 1000 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 260/7 Pudumba, cusceote. 10.. Ibid. 286/2 Palumba, cuscote, uel wuduculfre. 14.. Ibid. 702/34 Palumbus, cowscott. 1483 Cath. Angl. 79 Cowschote, palumbus. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. Prol. 237 The cowschet [v.r. kowschot] crowdis and pirkis on the rys. 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. xxxvii, Some dozens of queests, coushots, ringdoves and wood-culvers. 1788 Marshall Yorksh. Gloss., Cooscot, a wood-pigeon. 1781 J. Hutton Tour to Caves Gloss., Cowshut, a wild pigeon. 1792 Burns Bess & Spinning-wheel iii, On lofty aiks the cushats wail. 1813 Scott Rokeby iii. x, He heard the Cushat's murmur hoarse. 1866 Cornh. Mag. Aug. 224 The building cushats cooed and cooed. |
b. So cushat-dove (Sc. cusha-dow, cushie-doo).
| 1805 Scott Last Minstr. ii. xxxiv, Fair Margaret, through the hazel grove, Flew like the startled cushat-dove. 1886 Sidey Mistura Curiosa 103 The Cushie doo That croodles late at e'en. |