Cushat

Chiefly Sc. and north. dial. Forms: 1 cúscute, -scote, -sceote, 5 cowscott, -schote, 6 cowschet, kowschot, 6–7 coushot, 7, 9 cowshot, 8 cowshut, 8–9 cooscot, 9 cowscot; 6 cuschet, 8– cushat, 9 dial. cushie, cusha. [OE. cúscute, -scote, -sceote (wk. fem.) has no cognates in the other Teutonic langs., and its etymology is obscure. The element scote, scute is app. a deriv. of scéotan (weak grade scut-, scot-) to shoot, and may mean ‘shooter, darter’: cf. sceotan in Ælfric’s Colloquy, glossed tructos ‘trouts,’ app. in reference to their rapid darting motion; also cf. OHG. scoȥȥa str. f., shoot (of a plant). For the first part, cú cow offers no likely sense, and Prof. Skeat suggests that we may here have an echo of the bird’s call = modern coo: this is doubtful. Others have taken the first part as OE. cúsc chaste, modest, pure; but the rest of the word then remains unexplained.] The wood-pigeon or ring-dove.

a. 700.  Epinal Gloss., 829. Palumbes, cuscutan [Erfurt cuscotae, Corpus cuscote].

c. 1000.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 260/7. Pudumba, cusceote. Ibid. (10[?]), 286/2. Palumba, cuscote, uel wuduculfre. Ibid. (14[?]), 702/34. Palumbus, cowscott.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 79. Cowschote, palumbus.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 237. The cowschet [v.r. kowschot] crowdis and pirkis on the rys.

1653.  Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xxxvii. Some dozens of queests, coushots, ringdoves and wood-culvers.

1788.  W. H. Marshall, Yorksh. Gloss., Cooscot, a wood-pigeon.

1781.  J. Hutton, Tour to Caves, Gloss., Cowshut, a wild pigeon.

1792.  Burns, Bess & Spinning-wheel, iii. On lofty aiks the cushats wail.

1813.  Scott, Rokeby, III. x. He heard the Cushat’s murmur hoarse.

1866.  Cornh. Mag., Aug., 224. The building cushats cooed and cooed.

  b.  So cushat-dove (Sc. cusha-dow, cushie-doo).

1805.  Scott, Last Minstrel, II. xxxiv. Fair Margaret, through the hazel grove, Flew like the startled cushat-dove.

1886.  Sidey, Mistura Curiosa, 103.