Word of the Day
Saturday, August 28, 2010
couchant
\KOU-chuhnt\ , adjective;
1.
Lying down; crouching; reclining.
2.
Heraldry . (Of an animal) represented as lying on its stomach with its hind legs and forelegs pointed forward.
Quotes:
Winding through a noble valley, we presently came to Bello's palace, couchant and bristling in a grove.
-- Herman Melville, Mardi: And a Voyage Thither
Or again, have you ever watched fine collie dogs couchant at twenty yards' distance?
-- Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room
Origin:
Couchant is the ancestor of the Middle French coucher, "to lay or lie down." Couch has a similar etymology.
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