couthy adj [Scots couthie]
Of a person: Agreeable, kindly, affectionate. Note: The sense given in the last quot appears to be an erroneous deduction from context.
1910 Univ. NC Mag. 10.3.6 Hatteras Is. NC, On one of my early visits to Hatteras a young man asked : “Wont you make a picture of my may and me? “I’ll be delighted to,” I replied; “but what does your ladylove look like?” “You may not think her pretty, but she’s a couthy girl, and canty too.” Here were words I had never heard before, but I soon came to understand their meaning, after I had met many of the island people who were “couthy women and trusty men.” . . Couthy, besides meaning tender, sympathetic, motherly, as applied to these good women, or affable, pleasant, agreeable, like a familiar friend, has another meaning which is well illustrated by the statement, “Will Watkins looked so kind and couthy-like to Lucy Lowe.” 1938 Matschat Suwannee R. 161 nFL, sGA, He couldn’t read ary word, but he got hisself a couthy woman . . to share his homesite. Ibid 289, Couthy: from couthie, agreeable. 1938 FWP Ocean Highway 189 Hatteras Is. NC, “Couthy” is the local word for capable.