poltroon

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a thoroughly contemptible or abject coward

   Fear had reduced the once-defiant boy to a trembling poltroon.

2. 2
   adj

   cowardly or mean-spirited

   The commander condemned the poltroon refusal to defend the village.

Borrowed from Middle French poltron, from Italian poltrone, 'idler or coward.' The Italian word is associated with poltro, 'bed or couch,' suggesting a person who stays safely lounging rather than faces danger, though the deeper history is uncertain. English has used it as a strongly contemptuous term since the sixteenth century.

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