cushat

• cowshot (Lancashire)

From Middle English cowshott, cowschote, quyshte, from Old English cūsċeote (literally “cow shoot”), although it is difficult to understand why such a name would be given to these birds. Doublet of quist.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʌʃət/, /ˈkʊʃət/

cushat (plural cushats)

1. (Geordie or literary) A pigeon, wood pigeon or ring dove.
   • 1888, Gordon Stables, In Touch with Nature: Tales and Sketches from the Life, page 46:

     [A]nd no sound falls on my ears, except the distant roar of a passing train, the song of linnets, and croodle of turtle-dove and cushat.

• cushat dove, cushat-dove, queest, quist

• “cushat”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, →ISBN
• Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin,

• tuchas, Schaut