curtsy n, v Pronc-spp curch(e)y, curtchy, curtshy, kur(t)chy, kurtshee [Similar pronc-spp are found from the 16th century on, and are widespread in Brit dialects ]
Std senses, var forms.
1826 CT Mirror (Hartford) 1 May [2]/5 VT, After a while thay stopped a little, and then Miss made a curchy. 1835 Natl. Gaz. & Lit. Reg. (Philadelphia PA) 22 May [2]/2 OH, One of them. . made a very pretty curtsey. “What my little gal,” said the man, “do you curchy to a whole drove of hogs?” 1843 Hall New Purchase 1.165 IN, Here both ladies made a courtesy, (kurtshee). 1868 Jackson Std. (OH) 20 Feb [2]/2, The old school masters required much formality. . . The girls had to make a “curtchy,” being a contraction of the word “courtesy.” This was simply a slight bending forward of the knees. 1875 Twain Sketches New & Old (Hartford) 205 VA [Black], So one day I comes in dah whar de big officers was, in de parlor, an’ I drops a kurtchy. 1886 Cooke No 196 NEng, Well, you’d better kurchy to him. ‘Tisn’t every day folks get a tell like that. 1899 (1912) Green VA Folk-Speech 138, Curchy. . .. A gesture of reverence, respect, or civility; a kind of obeisance made by a woman, consisting in a sinking or inclination of the body, with the bending of the knee. Curtsy; curtshy. Ibid 44, We curchey to the new moon when we first see it.