couter

See also: coûter

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English couter, said to be from an Anglo-French variant couter, cuter of continental French coudière, from coute (“elbow”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈku.tə/

  Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈku.tɚ/

Noun

couter (plural couters)

1. (historical) A piece of armor which covers the elbow.
   • 2000, Brian Price, Techniques of Medieval Armour Reproduction: The 14th Century, →ISBN:

     Helmets should be started in 10 or 12 gauge, couters and knees in 14 gauge.

   • 2009, Jeffrey L. Forgeng, Will McLean, Daily Life in Chaucer's England, →ISBN, page 169:

     Full rerebraces enclosed the entire upper arm, with a hinge to allow them to be opened and straps and buckles to fasten them shut. Below the rerebrace was the elbow piece called a couter. The couter was small and conical, often shaped to a point, with a wing on the outer side as on the poleine, and with buckled straps to secure the arm harness snugly to the arm.

   • 2010, Noel Fallows, Jousting in Medieval and Renaissance Iberia, →ISBN, page 205:

     For example, it is unlikely that the right couter could be damaged or that it could be hit at all if the jouster had a large protective vamplate in place on his lance, though by the same token the folio of the Inventario iluminado on which Real Armeria harness A16 is illustrated (chapter 2, fig. 54) includes six vamplates of varying shapes and sizes for the joust royal so there is no guarantee that such capacious vamplates were used in each and every joust.

   • 2013, Paul F Walker, History of Armour 1100-1700, →ISBN:

     In some cases, the fashion for a short-sleeved hauberk similar to the earlier twelfth-century design allowed the lower canon to be worn beneath the mail, whilst the rerebrace, couter and spaudler still remained over the mail.

Alternative forms

• coutere, cowter

Etymology 2

Perhaps from "Danubian-Gipsy cuta, gold coin", compare Romani kotor (“piece, fragment”), reportedly used for a guinea.

Noun

couter (plural couters)

1. (slang, obsolete) A sovereign (the coin).

Alternative forms

• cooter

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Anagrams

• e-court

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

couter

1. post-1990 spelling of coûter

Conjugation

Conjugation of couter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	couter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	coutant /ku.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		couté /ku.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	coute /kut/	coutes /kut/	coute /kut/	coutons /ku.tɔ̃/	coutez /ku.te/	coutent /kut/
	imperfect	coutais /ku.tɛ/	coutais /ku.tɛ/	coutait /ku.tɛ/	coutions /ku.tjɔ̃/	coutiez /ku.tje/	coutaient /ku.tɛ/
	past historic2	coutai /ku.te/	coutas /ku.ta/	couta /ku.ta/	coutâmes /ku.tam/	coutâtes /ku.tat/	coutèrent /ku.tɛʁ/
	future	couterai /ku.tʁe/	couteras /ku.tʁa/	coutera /ku.tʁa/	couterons /ku.tʁɔ̃/	couterez /ku.tʁe/	couteront /ku.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	couterais /ku.tʁɛ/	couterais /ku.tʁɛ/	couterait /ku.tʁɛ/	couterions /ku.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	couteriez /ku.tə.ʁje/	couteraient /ku.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	coute /kut/	coutes /kut/	coute /kut/	coutions /ku.tjɔ̃/	coutiez /ku.tje/	coutent /kut/
	imperfect2	coutasse /ku.tas/	coutasses /ku.tas/	coutât /ku.ta/	coutassions /ku.ta.sjɔ̃/	coutassiez /ku.ta.sje/	coutassent /ku.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	coute /kut/	—	coutons /ku.tɔ̃/	coutez /ku.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “couter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• courte, croute, crouté, croûte, croûté