could

kəd

1 definition

0—

#1·6h ago

Something that could happen, or could be the case, under different circumstances; a potentiality.

When the golf ball is there, the whole self-interference package — the hopes, worries, and fears; the thoughts on how-to and how-not-to; the woulds, the coulds, and the shoulds — is there too.

Origin: From , couthe, cuthe, from , past indicative and past subjunctive form of to be able (compare related cūþ, whence English couth). Cognate with , . The -l- in the spelling was added in the early 16th century by analogy with should and would; this analogy formerly affected the pronunciation as well and was probably assisted by the tendency for to be lost in those words (and so not written, leading to shudd, wode, etc). Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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