| 释义 |
couthie, a. Sc.|ˈkuθɪ|
Also couthy.
[app. f. couth a. + -y1: cf. Ger. kundig, kündig, OHG. chundig known, knowing, OE. -cyþiȝ, f. cýþ knowledge, early ME. cuþi (ü) ? known, noted.
c1205Lay. 457 Heo beoð to gadere icumene, kuðies mæȝes [c 1275 cuþie meyes]. Ibid. 5098 Cuðie meies [c 1275 treuwe broþers]. c1275Ibid. 860 Þat folk com to gadere, cuþþie meyes [c 1205 gudliche cnihtes]. ]
1. Acting as befits persons well known to each other; full of friendly familiarity; warm and friendly in intercourse; kindly, pleasant, genial. (The opposite of treating each other as strangers.)
1719Ramsay 2nd Answ. to Hamilton vii, Heal be your heart, gay couthy carle. 1773R. Ferguson Auld Reekie Wks. (1879) 127 Whare couthy chiels at e'ening meet. 1824Galt Rothelan I. ii. x. 234 The magistrate and the chieftain..had often been couthy together. 1871G. Macdonald D. Elginbrod iii. vii. 304 If they had met on the shores of the central lake of Africa, they could scarcely have been more couthy together.
b. Said of personal actions and qualities.
1830Galt Lawrie T. vi. viii. (1849) 287 After a couthy crack about auld lang syne. 1858M. Porteous Souter Johnny 70 That couthy, social and humourous effect which it [Tam o'Shanter] so eminently possesses.
2. Of things: Agreeable, pleasing, ‘nice’.
1768Ross Helenore 22 (Jam.) The water feckly on a level sled Wi' little dinn, but couthy what it made. ― Ibid. (1866) 275 This strange but couthy tale. a1806in Jamieson Pop. Ball. I. 293 The spence was ay couthie an' clean.
3. Used advb. After the way of familiar friends; kindly, genially.
1768Ross Helenore 33 (Jam.) Kindly and couthy ay to her he spak. 1787Burns Halloween vii, Some kindle couthie, side by side, And burn thegither trimly. 1837R. Nicoll Poems (1843) 92 She dauts them and hauds them fu' couthie and well.
Hence ˈcouthy-like, ˈcouthily adv., ˈcouthiness.
1768Ross Helenore 88 (Jam.) He..spake sae kindly, couthy-like, and fair. Ibid. 76 In by they come, and haillst her couthily. 1808Jamieson, Couthiness, Coudiness, familiarity. 1820Glenfergus I. 239 (Jam.) How kind and couthie-like Lord Arnbank was lookin' to Miss Flora. |