QUESTION

Roy · Mar 23, 2006

Hey all - please help me settle a little spat I have going with a buddy. How do you correctly pronounce the word 'coues'. I think it is more like "kooz'" while my buddy swears up and down it is "k'ows". Please help me humiliate him because I know I am right.

ROY

Chef · Mar 23, 2006

Oops!
Hope you didn't bet him money.

Chef
"I Love Animals...They're Delicious!"

WFGinNM · Mar 23, 2006

moooo...

fisrtcoueswas80inches · Mar 23, 2006

the proper way to say it is "cows", but you wont really hear many people who hunt them say that. we almost all say "cooz" so i would call it a tie.
Casey

ismith · Mar 23, 2006

Its pronounced "cows", as that was how the gentleman who first described them (and then had them named after him) pronounced his name. I believe he was an army surgeon stationed in the south west during the Apache wars.
Irl

ASUCoues · Mar 23, 2006

There was a lot of discussion about this on the other site.

Another pronunciation that was thrown out was "couse".

The one that I like is "sneaky little b@$t@*&s". CB

OutdoorWriter · Mar 23, 2006

Roy,

Below is a snippet from "How To Hunt Coues Deer" -- the book I wrote along with Duwane Adams. -TONY

***

Although some call them ?coos? deer, and others more properly call them ?cows? deer, the litte deer, taxonomically known as Odocoileus virginianus couesi, ranks as one of North America?s most elusive and savy game animals. Just ask any hunter who has been outsmarted by a wily ol? buck.

The Coues deer inherited the couesi part of its Latin name from Lieutenant Elliot Coues, a Union Army quartermaster and naturalist who spent time in Arizona during the 1860s and supposedly collected and studied the Coues deer. Some accounts of his actual travels in Arizona seem to suggest he never even saw one of the deer that bears his name, however. According to historical records, another naturalist of the time, Edgar A. Mearns, assigned Coues? name to the diminutive deer?s taxonomical listing.

ismith · Mar 23, 2006

Well I was in the ball park at least. lol

Roy · Mar 24, 2006

Well - thanks guys - I think we are probably both right. I have just heard a lot of hunters say 'cooz' so that's why I was insistent that I was right. However it appears that he may be right too - BUT - if we really are going by the latin name - using the true latin pronounciation of Odocoileus virginianus couesi(which has nothing to do with how Lt. Coues pronounced his name) then I would definitely be right. My favorite however is ASUCoues offering - "sneaky little b@$t@*&s". LOL.

ROY