Lacking courage; showing fear or unwillingness to face danger or difficulty.
From Old French 'couard,' possibly from Latin 'cauda' (tail)—the idea being that a cowardly animal tucks its tail. The suffix '-ly' makes it an adjective describing the quality of cowardice.
Medieval knights literally called cowards 'tail-tuckers' because the word 'coward' might come from the image of a dog with its tail between its legs—language embedded animal behavior into human morality.
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