Obs. or dial. Forms: 1 coðu, 1–3 coðe, 5 coth(e, kothe, 8–9 dial. couth, cooth, 9 caud, coad. [OE. coðu, coðe disease, pestilence, affecting men or beasts.]
† 1. Sickness, disease, pestilence; an attack of illness, as swooning, the pains of childbirth, etc.
c. 1000. in Thorpe, Hom., II. 546 (Bosw.). Seo coðu ðe læcas hataþ paralisin.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 234. Wiþ wambe coþum.
1086. O. E. Chron. Swylc coðe com on mannum … þæt mæniʓe menn swulton.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 177. Cumeð coðe oðer qualm and michel þerof felleð.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 96/1. Cothe, or swownynge, sincopa.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 173. Ne hap the wumman in ony kothe be And may returne and geyn lyf take.
1460. Capgrave, Chron., 110. Hir cothis fel upon hir [Pope Joan] betwix the Collise and Seynt Clement Cherch.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 31. Thise wederes ar so hidus with many a cold coth.
2. Now a disease of sheep and cattle; cf. COE. dial. [Cf. COED ppl. a. diseased.]
[1041. O. E. Chron. Mycel orfes wæs … forfaren … þurh mistlice coða.]
1784–1815. Young, Annals Agric., Caud, the rot in sheep. Cornw.
1869. Lonsdale Gloss., Cooth, a cold caught by a cow or horse.
1888. Edin. Rev., Oct., 512. Anthrax or coad in sheep and cattle.
