A pseudo-etymological alteration of COWARD: cf. next.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), I. 473. Your skirmishing parties, call them cohorts or cow-hearts, shall never drive my statarianly disciplined battalion from its ground.
1863. W. Barnes, Dorset Dial. (Philol. Soc.), Cowheart.… A coward.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Cow-heart, coward.
