Cowardice
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Cowardice is a vice that is conventionally viewed as the corruption of prudence, to thwart all courage or bravery. Cowardice may be considered to be prudence that does not take consequences to their furthest extent. Someone who attacks and/or kills a defenseless person is also considered a coward.
[edit] US Military Definition of Cowardice
As a legal definition, according to Subchapter X, Section 899, Article 99[1] of the United States Uniform Code of Military Justice, cowardice is defined as:
- Running away from an enemy;
- Abandoning, surrendering or otherwise fleeing any post that the soldier is tasked with defending;
- Endangering the safety of any post that the soldier is responsible for through disobedience, neglect or willful misconduct while in combat;
- Discarding arms or ammunition while in combat;
- Abandoning combat to plunder or loot or commit other crimes;
- Willfully failing to do all within the soldier's power to fight or defend when it is his duty to do so, while in combat;
- Refusing to give any needed aid or relief to fellow troops while in combat; or
- Performing other unspecified acts of "cowardly conduct" while in combat.
According to the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice- USA), the maximum punishment for cowardice is the death penalty. Cowardice can, by definition, only be charged during a time of and in an area of armed conflict.
[edit] Etymology
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word "coward" comes from an Old French word coart, a combination of the word for "tail" and an agent noun suffix. It would therefore have meant "one with a tail" — perhaps one in the habit of turning it, or it may be derived from a dog's habit of putting its tail between its legs when it is afraid. Another more clearly related word, in old French, that can be related to coward is "couard" which literally means coward and was frequently used by French knights in battle. It is therefore possible that the English language was enriched in such manner through military contacts with the French (Or the Francophone Normans that invaded England in 1066)
The English surname Coward (as in Noel Coward), however, has the same origin and meaning as the word "cowherd".
