Poor old coots get a rough ride. \u2018David Lindo takes a look at the origin of the saying ‘bald as a coot\u2019 <\/p>
Coots are much-loved members of reference to people who looked like the rail family (made up of small, wading birds) and are often mistaken for ducks.<\/p>\n
There were once two common phrases involving these birds: \u2018queer as a coot\u2019 and \u2018bald as a coot\u2019. The former has now vanished from popular parlance and referred to people being odd or strange, as the birds themselves were deemed as being foolish: silly coot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The phrase \u2018bald as a coot\u2019 has been around since 1430 and was made in coots, ie bald at the front of their heads. But it\u2019s not just to do with lack of hair. The word \u2018bald\u2019 actually derives from the old English word \u2018bala\u2019, meaning \u2018white patch\u2019, which the bird\u2019s white frontal plate resembles. This distinctive shield stands out against the dark head when held low in displays of aggression.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
However, in my view, everyone has overlooked the chicks of coots. Now they really are bald!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <\/div>\n Main image: Common Coot \u00a9 Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n Poor old coots get a rough ride. \u2018David Lindo takes a look at the origin of the saying ‘bald as a coot\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":29986,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-do-we-say-bald-as-a-coot.jpg",2121,1414,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-do-we-say-bald-as-a-coot-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-do-we-say-bald-as-a-coot-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-do-we-say-bald-as-a-coot-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-do-we-say-bald-as-a-coot-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-do-we-say-bald-as-a-coot-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-do-we-say-bald-as-a-coot-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Poor old coots get a rough ride. \u2018David Lindo takes a look at the origin of the saying 'bald as a coot\u2019","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/29985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More questions answered<\/h4>\n
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