A dialectal or informal variant meaning cowardly or showing cowardice.
From 'coward' with the suffix '-y' (Old English '-ig'), which forms adjectives meaning 'having the quality of' or 'like.' This is a non-standard variant.
English dialects preserve old word-formation patterns—'-y' suffixes were once standard for making adjectives (like 'rainy' or 'cloudy'), and 'cowardy' shows this ancient pattern still alive in regional speech.
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