Coward has no cow anywhere in it: the root is Latin cauda, a tail, picturing an animal with its own tucked between its legs. Cowhearted, documented since 1660, really is cow plus hearted, and it only came to mean cowardly because it was mistaken for the neighbour it sounds like. Anu Garg’s verdict — coward is all tail and no cow — and the cattle may wish to file a moo-tion for defamation.