cushat

• cowshot (Lancashire)

From Middle English cowshott, cowschote, quyshte, from Old English cūsċeote (literally “cow shoot”), although it is difficult to understand why such a name would be given to these birds. Doublet of quist.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʌʃət/, /ˈkʊʃət/

cushat (plural cushats)

1. (Geordie, Scotland or literary) A pigeon, wood pigeon or ring dove.
   • 1793, Robert Burns, “Song Composed in August (Now Westlin Winds)”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 2nd edition, volume II, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, page 133:

     Thro' lofty groves the Cuſhat roves,
     The path of man to ſhun it

   • 1888, Gordon Stables, In Touch with Nature: Tales and Sketches from the Life, page 46:

     [A]nd no sound falls on my ears, except the distant roar of a passing train, the song of linnets, and croodle of turtle-dove and cushat.

• cushat dove, cushat-dove, queest, quist

• “cushat”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “CUSHAT”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
• Scott Dobson, Dick Irwin, “cushat”, in Newcastle 1970s: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎^[1], archived from the original on 5 September 2024.

• tuchas, Schaut