coot, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

coot n.¹

[proverbial phr. stupid as a coot; ? play on Lat. Fulica, the species/SE foolish; the coot, synon. with the Foolish Guillemot, is seen in pvbs as a foolish bird. The popular link with the undoubtedly eccentric Sir Eyre Coote (1762–1823) is specious]

1. a fool, a simpleton; usu. as silly old coot, old coot etc.

1766		Sewel & Buys Compl. Dict., Eng. and Dutch 138/1: A very coot, (or fool) Een gek in folio.
1794		Gazette of the US (Phila.) 17 Jan. n.p.: But Satan was not such a coot / To sell Judea for a goat.
1824		Old Colony Memorial (Plymouth) 6 Mar. n.p.: ‘Poh, Jo, you coot,’ cries Shacklefoot.
1848		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers (1880) 112: Ef I’d expected sech a trick, I wouldn’t ha cut my foot / By goin’ and votin’ fer myself, like a consumed coot.
1873		W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 276: When I cry baby, you jist sot me down as a poor coot, and unworthy the great state that I represent.
1909		Sun. Times (Perth) 15 Aug. 4s/8: Oh Gorstruth! [...] Monty’s but a coot.
1911		B. Fisher Mutt & Jeff 3 Aug. [synd. strip] I’m a foxy coot on the card stuff.
1914		C.J. Dennis ‘The Play’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 16 July 47/1: ‘Shame!’ sez some silly coot.
1933		Era (London) 1 Feb. 9/3: A balmy Pommy cricketing coot.
1936		West Australian (Perth) 6 June 4/6: A poor coot uses dinkum slang / Some snoozer comes along / And says [...] me bloomin’ accent’s wrong.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 17 Mar. [synd. cartoon strip] You clumsy coots!
1950		A. Buckeridge Jennings Goes To School 188: He’s as ozard as a coot.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 244: The Dummy – that poor little coot!
1956		B. Behan Quare Fellow (1960) Act II: He’s as mad as a coot.
1966		C. Stead Cotters’ England (1980) 138: You’re a funny coot.
1973		P. Wilson N.Z. Jack 124: You coot. I heard you fooling around.

2. (Aus./N.Z./US) a general description, usu. derog.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Nov. 13/3: [cartoon caption] Fairy: ‘Hoo! Catch me! Don’t that bloke love ’isself!’ / Woster: ‘Well, I reckon he does; that’s the coot wot give our old man three years.’.
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 272: I’ve got to teach that red-haired coot a lesson [...] He’s a little too confident.
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘A Guide for Poits’ in Backblock Ballads 37: I’d love to listen to each choonful lay / Uv soulful coots who scorn to write fer gain.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 103: Some coot hisses, ‘Halt!’ [...] I’m annoyed.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘The Knight’s Return’ in Chisholm (1951) 85: Two stations on, a w’iskered coot gits in.
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 131: They resented a decent coot like Artie being crimed.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 342: A sneakin’ coot of a police-boy stationed at the Compound got to hear of it and told the jonnops.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 38: The sergeant was one of them talkative coots what try to get bagmen to be confidential.
1951		(con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 91: If a corporal makes a coot of himself [...] he generally don’t last long.
1963		M. Spillane Return of the Hood 18: I didn’t know this big coot blasted any?
1971		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 75: Twenty-two seems no age to wear the persona of cantankerous coot so naturally.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 168: This coot was maybe sixty, tall and stooped.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

In derivatives

cootish (adj.)

foolish.

1953

A. Buckeridge Jennings’ Diary 110: You do say the most cootish things.

In phrases

bald coot (n.)

(UK gambling) a losing player who has been ‘plucked’ / pluck v. (2)

1824

History of Gaming Houses & Gamesters 44: The poor plucked pigeon (now become a bald coot) lost his reason.

old coot (n.)

a foolish or cantankerous old person; also used affectionately.

1844		‘Jonathan Slick’ High Life in N.Y. II 6: There is no cheating that old coot.
c.1850		F.M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 33: He’s an amazin’ ignorant old coot.
1862		‘Artemus Ward’ Artemus Ward, His Book 83: What sort of sense is thare to King Leer who goze round cussin his darters [...] and larfin like a silly old koot and makin a ass of hisself ginerally?
1874		Alpena Wkly Argus (MI) 24 Feb. 1/4: Oh, a regular knave is that same old coot.
1880		P. Deming Adirondack Stories 31: May I be cat-a-wampussed if he won’t swaller all the soap that old coot is a mind to give him [DA].
1888		Pioneer Exp. (Pembina, ND) 28 Dec. 1/7: West is a miser’ble old coot, an’ he ought to be told so.
1897		Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton, SD) 8 Jan. 1/4: The other day we heard a man speak of another as a ‘d—d old coot’.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Apr. 14/4: A hunk of bush phraseology: – ‘Yes, ole Brown was a reg’lar ole coot, a right down pukacker. Yer could ring a tatt into him anytime. He rolled ’is marble in last year – too much nose-paint, yer know.’ Which all meant merely that Brown was shiftless and credulous and had died through excessive drinking.
1905		Eve. Star (Washington, DC) 25 June 5/2: The crazy old coot spent all his spare time sitting up atop his lighthouse.
1914		S. Lewis Our Mr Wrenn (1936) 51: Except for the old Jews. They seem to be fine old coots.
1927		(con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 13: He’d [...] kid the juries along and hire some old coot to do the briefs.
1934		F.E. Baume Burnt Sugar 73: He and Charlie Wong Yip! The silly old coot!
1937		R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 56: Barmy old coot.
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 32: Do the poor old coot good to think he’s at sea again.
1942		R. Chandler High Window 90: I knew she was the widow of an old coot with whiskers named Jasper Murdock.
1958		L.F. Cooley Run For Home (1959) 89: He’s a grumpy old coot.
1960		‘Nino Culotta’ Cop This Lot 10: Joe told the inspector that he was a ‘cantankerous old coot’.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 104: Some whore [...] was probably down there with the old coot.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 163: Bad Eye says you’re a crazy old coot, but he loves you.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 169: He looked like a lonely, opinionated old coot.
1984		Benjamin & Pearl Limericks Down Under 48: There was an old coot of Culloden / Who felt he was being down-trodden.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 93: He was an old coot whose voice sounded like gravel being churned against broken glass.
1991		Desperate Dan Special No. 7 30: Git away from me, ya crazy old coot.
2000		Guardian Guide 29 July – 4 Aug. 11: Cage tries to persuade reliable old coot Robert Duvall to serve as the sergeant-at-arms.
2003		N. Green Angel of Montague Street (2004) 118: Blanche tell you what a windy old coot I was?
2007		S. Maloney Sucked In 155: The old coot had been playing hard to get.
2010		L. Berney Gutshot Straight [ebook] She turned to find a rich old coot grinning at her.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] A rawboned old coot ran the place.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] [O]nce the old coot has chuckled he grows serious.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 13: ‘The old coot’s gone’.

coot n.1

In derivatives

In phrases

coot n.¹