different between multitude vs covey

English

Etymology

From Middle English multitude, multitud, multytude (“(great) amount or number of people or things; multitudinous”), borrowed from Old French multitude (“crowd of people; diversity, wide range”), or directly from its etymon Latin multit?d? (“great amount or number of people or things”), from multus (“many; much”) + -t?d? (suffix forming abstract nouns indicating a state or condition). The English word is analysable as multi- +? -tude.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?lt?tju?d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?lt??t(j)ud/, /?m?l-/
• Hyphenation: mul?ti?tude

Noun

multitude (plural multitudes)

1. A great amount or number, often of people; abundance, myriad, profusion.

   Synonym: (Northern England, Scotland) hantel, hantle
2. The mass of ordinary people; the masses, the populace.

   Synonym: crowd

   Pilate, wishing to please the multitude, released Barabbas to them.

   • Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil

Derived terms

• multitudinous

Translations

References

Further reading

• multitude on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From Old French multitude.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /myl.ti.tyd/

Noun

multitude f (plural multitudes)

1. multitude

Further reading

• “multitude” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin multit?d? (“great amount or number of people or things”), from multus (“many; much”) + -t?d? (suffix forming abstract nouns indicating a state or condition).

Noun

multitude f (oblique plural multitudes, nominative singular multitude, nominative plural multitudes)

1. crowd of people
2. diversity; wide range

Descendants

• English: multitude
• French: multitude

English

Etymology 1

From Old French covee (Modern French couvée), from Latin cub? (“lie”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?v??, IPA^(key): /?k?vi/

Noun

covey (plural coveys)

1. A group of 8–12 (or more) quail.

   Coordinate terms: flock, gaggle, host

2. A brood of partridges, grouse, etc.

   • laid for by the fowler, together with their covey of young birds

3. A party or group (of persons or things).
   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 736

     A covey of grey soldiers clanked down the platform at the double with their equipment and embarked, but in absolute silence, which seemed to them very singular.

Translations

Verb

covey (third-person singular simple present coveys, present participle coveying, simple past and past participle coveyed)

1. (intransitive) To brood; to incubate.
   • Book 9

     [Tortoises] couvie a whole yeere before they hatch

References

• 1996, T.F. Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology, Oxford University Press, ?ISBN

Etymology 2

cove +? -y

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k??vi/
• (US) enPR: k??v?, IPA^(key): /?ko?vi/

Noun

covey (plural coveys)

1. (Britain, slang, dated) A man.

Synonyms

• bloke (UK), chap (UK), chappie (UK), cove (UK), guy, see also Thesaurus:man

Translations

Anagrams

• voyce