Definition of "couth"

So Dennis May thrilled me in a recent issue when he described Raymond Mays' 1939 E.R.A. racer as a "couth" little Merc-like model.

1943, Henry Sturmey, H. Walter Staner, The Autocar: A Journal Published in the Interests of the Mechanically Propelled Road Carriage, volume 88, London: Iliffe, Sons & Sturney, page 632, column 3

Yet the dancers are beautiful, their cool movement has a couth simplicity, and there are moments when a gesture of almost absolute beauty stands transfixed in some transom of sublime comprehension.

1991, John Percival, editor, Dance and Dancers, London: Dance & Dancers Ltd., page 37

[John] Dankworth's care over the shaping and presentation of his music led occasionally to complaints that it was clever, lightweight stuff, lacking the rough passion which many regarded as the mark of authentic jazz, a view summed up by the critic Kitty Grime in the much-quoted phrase "couth, kempt and shevelled".

2010 February 7, “Sir John Dankworth [obituary]”, in Tony Gallagher, editor, The Daily Telegraph‎, London: Telegraph Media Group, archived from the original on 24 January 2019

There is an aspect of the cultural conservative argument that sometimes drifts dangerously close to tha view, elitist to the core, as elitist as the New Class, as elitist as limousine liberalism: The public ain't got no couth. You can hear those old-fashioned elitist wheels spinning: Maybe we need a few government regulations to deal with the couth shortage.

1995, Ben[jamin] J[oseph] Wattenberg, “Those Darn Cultural Issues”, in Values Matter Most: How Democrats or Republicans or a Third Party Can Win and Renew the American Way of Life, Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, part 2 (What It’s Not), page 107

My daughters have long and inappropriately been members of the Committee to Reform Dad's Hygiene, taking me to task for my supposed lack of couth.

2004, W[illiam] Bruce Cameron, “How to Increase a Man’s Couth”, in How to Remodel a Man: Tips and Techniques on Accomplishing Something You Know Is Impossible but Want to Try Anyway, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press; republished as How to Remodel a Man: You Know It’s Impossible but You Want to Try Anyway, London: HarperCollins, 2005, page 62

Couth and manners are intensely subjective concepts. Each culture has its own standards of acceptable table manners, for instance.

2005, Heidi Munan, Culture Shock!: Malaysia: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Culture Shock!), Portland, Or.: Graphics Art Center Pub. Co., page 86

You got no couth, Ed. You was raised no-count is what you were. No count and you ain't got a lick of couth.

2006, Mark Powell, Blood Kin: A Novel, Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, page 97

We transformed the uncouths into couths, the unkempts into kempts, the inerts into erts! We did it all by speaking to teen-agers on their own terms and in their own language.Note: Likely to be a nonce use.]

[1967, Bernice Fitz-Gibbon, Macy’s, Gimbels, and Me: How to Earn $90,000 a Year in Retail Advertising, New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, page 91

I'm going to hit that "Gulf of Texas" beach with a bundle of couths and suaves because those Texas gals that hang around the big shrimp boats are used to good living.

1968 November, “C. R. Terror”, in Richard L. Anderson, editor, The MAC Flyer (USAF Recurring Publication; 62-5), volume XV, number 11, Scott Air Force Base, Ill.: Directorate of Safety, Headquarters Military Airlift Command, page 28, column 1