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couth

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couth¹

  • /kuːθ/ UK, Wales
  • /kʉwθ/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /kuθ/ US
  • /kʉːθ/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /kʉθ/ Northern Ireland, Scotland

Rhymes with -uːθ

Where it comes from

From Middle English couth (“familiar, known; evident, true; famous, respected, well-known; genteel, having good manners”), from Old English cūþ (“familiar, intimate, known, usual; certain, plain, manifest; famous, noted, well-known; excellent; friendly; related”), past participle of cunnan (“to be familiar with, know; can, to be able, know how”), from Proto-Germanic *kunnaną (“to be familiar with, know, recognize; to be able, know how”) (compare *kunþaz (“known”)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”). The word is cognate with Dutch kond (“known”), Saterland Frisian cut (“known”), Gothic 𐌺𐌿𐌽𐌸𐍃 (kunþs, “known”), Icelandic kuður, kunnur (“known”), Latin gnosco (“to know”), Old High German kund, chund, chunt, Middle High German kunt (modern German kund (“known”)), Old Saxon kūth, cûth, cuð (“known; famous, renowned”), Scots couth (“familiar, known”); and is a doublet of could.

adjective more couth · most couth

  1. obsolete Familiar, known; well-known, renowned.

    Opposite: uncouth

  2. Scotland Agreeable, friendly, pleasant.
  3. Scotland Comfortable; cosy, snug. Squad leaders were responsible for doing periodic checks to make sure soldiers were living a couth lifestyle, as Joes would compete regularly to see whose room was nicer.

couth²

  • /kuːθ/ UK, Wales
  • /kʉwθ/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /kuθ/ US
  • /kʉːθ/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /kʉθ/ Northern Ireland, Scotland

Rhymes with -uːθ

Where it comes from

Back-formation from uncouth.

adjective more couth · most couth

  1. Marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication; cultured, refined. So Dennis May thrilled me in a recent issue when he described Raymond Mays' 1939 E.R.A. racer as a "couth" little Merc-like model.

    Opposite: uncouth

noun couths

  1. uncountable, usually Social grace, refinement, sophistication; etiquette, manners. That man has no couth.
  2. rare, uncountable, usually A person with social graces; a refined or sophisticated person. We transformed the uncouths into couths, the unkempts into kempts, the inerts into erts! We did it all by speaking to teen-agers on their own terms and in their own language.

Translations

Every language

adj marked by or possessing a high degree of sophistication — see also cultured, refined

Españolsofisticado, refinado
Françaisraffiné, sophistiqué
Italianolepido

noun social grace, refinement, sophistication — see also refinement, sophistication

Françaisraffinement, sophistication
Deutschgute Umgangsformen, Manieren
Italianolepòre

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Cite this
MLA

"couth." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/couth. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

couth. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/couth

Chicago

"couth." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/couth.

BibTeX
@misc{couth_2026,
  title = {couth},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/couth},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}