couter
See also: coûter
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English couter, said to be from an Anglo-French variant couter, cuter of continental French coudière, from coute (“elbow”).[1]
Noun
couter (plural couters)
- (historical) A piece of armor which covers the elbow.
- 2000, Brian Price, Techniques of Medieval Armour Reproduction: The 14th Century, →ISBN:
- Helmets should be started in 10 or 12 gauge, couters and knees in 14 gauge.
- 2009, Jeffrey L. Forgeng, Will McLean, Daily Life in Chaucer's England, →ISBN, page 169:
- Full rerebraces enclosed the entire upper arm, with a hinge to allow them to be opened and straps and buckles to fasten them shut. Below the rerebrace was the elbow piece called a couter. The couter was small and conical, often shaped to a point, with a wing on the outer side as on the poleine, and with buckled straps to secure the arm harness snugly to the arm.
- 2010, Noel Fallows, Jousting in Medieval and Renaissance Iberia, →ISBN, page 205:
- For example, it is unlikely that the right couter could be damaged or that it could be hit at all if the jouster had a large protective vamplate in place on his lance, though by the same token the folio of the Inventario iluminado on which Real Armeria harness A16 is illustrated (chapter 2, fig. 54) includes six vamplates of varying shapes and sizes for the joust royal so there is no guarantee that such capacious vamplates were used in each and every joust.
- 2013, Paul F Walker, History of Armour 1100-1700, →ISBN:
- In some cases, the fashion for a short-sleeved hauberk similar to the earlier twelfth-century design allowed the lower canon to be worn beneath the mail, whilst the rerebrace, couter and spaudler still remained over the mail.
Etymology 2
Perhaps from "Danubian-Gipsy cuta, gold coin", compare Romani kotor (“piece, fragment”), reportedly used for a guinea.[2]
Alternative forms
References
- “cǒutẹ̄r, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- Jonathon Green, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (2005), "couter n. (also couta, cooter) [mid-late 19C]"
- John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
Anagrams
French
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Conjugation
Conjugation of couter (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | couter | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | coutant /ku.tɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | couté /ku.te/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | coute /kut/ |
coutes /kut/ |
coute /kut/ |
coutons /ku.tɔ̃/ |
coutez /ku.te/ |
coutent /kut/ |
| imperfect | coutais /ku.tɛ/ |
coutais /ku.tɛ/ |
coutait /ku.tɛ/ |
coutions /ku.tjɔ̃/ |
coutiez /ku.tje/ |
coutaient /ku.tɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | coutai /ku.te/ |
coutas /ku.ta/ |
couta /ku.ta/ |
coutâmes /ku.tam/ |
coutâtes /ku.tat/ |
coutèrent /ku.tɛʁ/ | |
| future | couterai /ku.tʁe/ |
couteras /ku.tʁa/ |
coutera /ku.tʁa/ |
couterons /ku.tʁɔ̃/ |
couterez /ku.tʁe/ |
couteront /ku.tʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | couterais /ku.tʁɛ/ |
couterais /ku.tʁɛ/ |
couterait /ku.tʁɛ/ |
couterions /ku.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
couteriez /ku.tə.ʁje/ |
couteraient /ku.tʁɛ/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | coute /kut/ |
coutes /kut/ |
coute /kut/ |
coutions /ku.tjɔ̃/ |
coutiez /ku.tje/ |
coutent /kut/ |
| imperfect2 | coutasse /ku.tas/ |
coutasses /ku.tas/ |
coutât /ku.ta/ |
coutassions /ku.ta.sjɔ̃/ |
coutassiez /ku.ta.sje/ |
coutassent /ku.tas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | coute /kut/ |
— | coutons /ku.tɔ̃/ |
coutez /ku.te/ |
— | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
References
Further reading
- “couter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
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