COWARD, a term of contempt for one who shows physical or moral fear. The true derivation is from the Fr. coe, an old form of queue, a tail, from Lat. cauda, hence couart or coward. The reference to "tail" is either to the expression "turn tail" in flight or to the habit that frightened animals have of dropping the tail between the legs. In heraldry (q.v.) a lion in this posi tion is a "lion coward."