Why this word is great
CRAVEN — [Adjective] Utterly lacking courage; contemptibly cowardly, especially in failing to meet a duty or threat. Its etymology traces a history of collapse: from Middle English cravant, likely borrowed from or influenced by Old French cravanté ("defeated"), the past participle of cravanter, which is ultimately from Latin crepare ("to crack, burst"). Unlike "timid," which suggests a natural reticence, or "prudent," which implies a reasoned caution, "craven" denotes a moral fracture—a willful desertion of principle. It is the soldier who abandons his post, the witness who denies what he saw, the leader who placates a bully to save his own skin—the quiet, interior sound of a spine breaking under no pressure at all, the small crack that upholds every large injustice.