SELCOUTH

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 27 September 2011

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SELCOUTH  (adj.)

Definition(s):

1. (adj.) unusual; strange
2. (adj.) marvelous; wonderful

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: (none)
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
Someone who is COUTH is “sophisticated or well-mannered,” while someone UNCOUTH is “lacking in good manners, or awkward in appearance.”  These words passed into modern English from the Old English cuth (“known”), and they did originally mean “known” and “unknown” before centuries of slight variation slowly altered their meanings.  A chiefly Scottish variant COUTHIE evolved much later to mean “friendly, pleasant” — treating someone as familiar.

Knowing all this, it comes as no surprise that the Old English seldcuth was merely a combination of seldan (“seldom”) and our now-familiar friend cuth (“known”).  It has been in the language for more than a thousand years, though it now seems like a SELCOUTH visitor from another time and only occasionally makes an appearance in modern writing.

This week’s theme: Words starting with the letter S

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