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Etymology and origin of the English word coupe

Pronunciation

coupe1 car, carriage

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1834 T. Medwin, The Angler in Wales
Borrowed from
French coupé
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek κόλαφος

Etymology

The car and the carriage are borrowed from French coupé,[2][3][4][5] short for carrosse coupé (“cut-off carriage”),[3][4][5][6][7] from the past participle of couper (“to cut”).[2][5][8] Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories calls the derivation from carrosse coupé probable.[9] The carriage was a shortened berlin, with the back seat cut away.[3][5][6] The French verb is a derivative of coup (“blow”), the source of English coup,[5][4][7] which comes from Medieval Latin colpus, from Latin colaphus, from Ancient Greek κόλαφος (kólaphos, “blow, punch”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A short four-wheeled closed carriage with a seat for two inside and an outside seat for the driver: 1834, in T. Medwin's The Angler in Wales.[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Also in 1834 the word named the front or rear compartment of a continental stagecoach,[2][3] and later, from 1853, an end compartment in a railway carriage, seated on one side only.[2] It was first applied to a closed two-door motor car in 1908, in A. Bennett's Buried Alive,[2][4][5] though Etymonline dates this use to 1897.[3] In the United States the car is often spelled coupe and pronounced in one syllable.[2][10][4] Compounds followed: coupé cabriolet, a car whose top folds down, and coupé de ville, with an enclosed passenger compartment and an open driver's seat, both from 1930 in the OED[2] and 1931 for coupé de ville in Etymonline.[3] In American Black slang a coupe was a Cadillac Coupe de Ville (1980).[11] Earlier, English had borrowed the French participle for a step in dancing (1673 in Merriam-Webster) and as a term of heraldry (1572), and it was used in fencing from 1889.[8][2][10]

Timeline

  • 1834 – a closed four-wheeled carriage for two; the front or rear compartment of a continental stagecoach.[2][3]
  • 1853 – an end compartment in a railway carriage.[2]
  • 1908 – a closed two-door car.[2][4][5] Etymonline dates this use to 1897.[3]
  • 1930 – coupé cabriolet and coupé de ville.[2]
  • 1980 – in American Black slang, a Cadillac Coupe de Ville.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A closed car with two doors, a fixed roof and usually a sloping back: They traded the old van for a sporty coupe.[7][8][2]
  2. (historical) A four-wheeled closed horse-drawn carriage with two seats inside and one outside for the driver.[7][8][2]
  3. An end compartment of a European railway carriage, with seats on one side only.[7][8][2]
  4. (historical) The front or rear compartment of a continental stagecoach.[8][2]

coupe2 dessert dish

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1895 Montgomery Ward Catalogue
Borrowed from
French coupe
Ultimate origin
Late Latin cuppa
Etymology tree of coupe2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin cuppa
French coupe
English coupe
English cup
German Kopf
The journey of coupe2
From the same root · coupe2
English cupboard ← cup
English cupcake ← cup

Etymology

The dessert and its dish are borrowed from French coupe (“goblet”),[2][10][7][12] from Late Latin cuppa (“cup”),[8][13][10][14] the source also of English cup.[8][13][7] Dictionary.com takes the Late Latin word from Latin cūpa (“cask, tub, barrel”).[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A shallow cup, bowl or glass: 1895, in a Montgomery Ward catalogue.[2][10]

Semantic evolution

From 1905, in E. Wharton's The House of Mirth, the word also named a mixture of ice cream and fruit served in such a glass, as in coupe Jacques.[2][10] Merriam-Webster also uses it for a rimless plate or a wide, shallow rimless bowl.[8]

Timeline

  • 1895 – a shallow cup, bowl or glass.[2][10]
  • 1905 – a dessert of ice cream and fruit served in a glass.[2][10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A dessert of ice cream with fruit, cream or another topping, served in a glass: a peach coupe.[7][8][2]
  2. A stemmed glass or shallow dish for serving such a dessert.[7][8][2]
  3. A rimless plate or wide, shallow rimless bowl.[8]

Usage notes

A rarer coupe, a periodic felling of trees or the area cleared, was borrowed from French coupe, "felling", in 1922.[2][10] The car is usually written coupé and pronounced in two syllables in Britain, and written coupe and pronounced in one in the United States.[7][2][10]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  14. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Coupe.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/coupe. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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