the.com/coot
a bald-pated swamp goblin that drowns rival chicks and forgets it ever happened
means A coot is a dark, duck-like water bird with a distinctive white frontal shield on its forehead, and the word is also used informally to mean a foolish or cranky old person (as in 'old coot').
from The bird-name 'coot' surfaces in Middle English as 'cote' or 'coute,' and its deeper roots are murky — possibly imitative of the bird's call, possibly borrowed from a Low German or Dutch source (Dutch has the related 'koet'). The white-headed look of these birds also gave English the phrase 'as bald as a coot,' recorded for centuries, and from that the slangy 'old coot' for a cantankerous old man eventually waddled into being.
- brutal parents
- Coots kill weaker chicks to feed the strong
- fake feet
- Lobed toes, not webbed, for awkward swimming
- running takeoff
- Sprints across water flapping to get airborne
- old slang
- Old coot mocks cranky elders since 1700s
- white shield
- Forehead patch signals dominance to other coots
american coot — common waterbird across north america with distinctive white bill and frontal shield
eurasian coot — widespread species across europe, asia, and africa, larger than american coot