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coupe

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Etymology and origin of the French word coupe

French has two words spelled coupe: the cup, from Latin, and the cut, formed from the verb couper.[1][2][3]

coupe1 cup

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1155, Wace, Brut
Inherited from
Latin cuppa via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin cūpa
Etymology tree of coupe1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin cuppa
French coupe
English cup
German Kopf

Pronunciation

Forms

coupe f (plural coupes)[4] Old French cupe (1155) and cope.[3][4]

Etymology

The cup is inherited from Old French cupe, inherited from Late Latin cuppa (“cup”), a variant of Latin cūpa (“large wooden vessel, cask”) that took the sense “cup” in late Latin.[3][5][6][7][1] It is a doublet of cuve, from the classical form.[4][1] Rey reports that the Latin word has been compared, as a hypothesis, with Ancient Greek κύπη (kúpē), and that it is the source of German Kufe and English cup.[5] The sports sense is a semantic loan from the English word.[3][4]

Cognate with Picard cope, Italian coppa, Occitan copa, Spanish copa and Portuguese copa.[8][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as cupe in 1155 in Wace's Brut, for a drinking vessel.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word names a drinking vessel wider than it is deep, standing on a foot, and by likeness other kinds of bowl.[5] It has been used metaphorically since 1564 (coupe of something abstract, the lot that fate holds out), and some phrases are still alive, such as la coupe est pleine and il y a loin de la coupe aux lèvres, though verre has become the everyday word for a drinking glass.[5][9]

The sports sense, a trophy in the form of a cup of precious metal, was first used of England in the second half of the 19th century and is recorded by Littré in 1863; it imitates English cup, a sports term since the 17th century.[3][5] From the trophy it passed to the competition, as in the Coupe Davis (1900) and the Coupe de France of football (1917).[5] Derivatives include coupelle (1431) and soucoupe (1640), probably modelled on Italian sottocoppa.[6]

Timeline

  • 1155 – Cupe in Wace's Brut.[3]
  • 1431 – Coupelle.[6]
  • 1564 – First figurative use.[5][9]
  • 1640 – Soucoupe.[6]
  • 1863 – Littré records the sports trophy.[3]
  • 1900 – The Coupe Davis.[5]
  • 1917 – The Coupe de France of football.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A goblet or drinking glass wider than it is deep, on a stem, coupe à champagne; its contents: une coupe de champagne.[2][9]
  2. A footed bowl for fruit, ice cream or desserts.[2]
  3. (sports) A cup given as a trophy; the competition for it: la Coupe du monde.[3][5][4]
  4. (literary) The lot fate holds out, boire la coupe jusqu'à la lie, to suffer to the end, la coupe est pleine, enough is enough.[2][9]

Word family

  • coupelle
  • soucoupe

coupe2 cut

Confidence
Established
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1283, Beaumanoir
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek κόλαφος

Pronunciation

Forms

coupe f (plural coupes)[4]

Etymology

The cut is a back-formation from couper.[3][1][4][6] The verb is derived from coup, from Vulgar Latin colpus, from Latin colaphus (“a blow with the fist”), from Ancient Greek κόλαφος (kólaphos, “slap”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Beaumanoir's Coutumes de Beauvaisis (1283), for the cutting of wood.[3]

Semantic evolution

In forestry the word came to mean the amount of wood felled in a forest (1625, Nicot), and Furetière (1690) records coupe réglée, regular felling;[3] Chateaubriand uses mettre en coupe réglée figuratively for exploiting someone or something repeatedly.[3] Coupe sombre, properly a light felling that leaves the forest dark, is now commonly used for drastic cuts, through a misunderstanding of sombre.[3]

Other senses are the place where something has been cut (1611, Cotgrave), a drawing of an object as if cut by a vertical plane (1732), the way a garment is cut (1660, Oudin) and, by extension, the shape of a face (1763).[3] In prosody it is a break in a line (1549, Du Bellay), and at cards the cutting of the pack (1660), whence être sous la coupe de quelqu'un, a gaming phrase (1690) used figuratively by Saint-Simon for being in someone's power.[3]

Timeline

  • 1283 – The cutting of wood, in Beaumanoir.[3]
  • 1549 – A break in a line of verse, in Du Bellay.[3]
  • 1611 – Cotgrave records the place where something is cut.[3]
  • 1660 – The cut of a garment; the cutting of cards.[3]
  • 1690 – Coupe réglée and être sous la coupe.[3]
  • 1732 – A sectional drawing.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The action of cutting: coupe de cheveux, a haircut, à la coupe, sold by the slice or cut to order.[2][4][3]
  2. (forestry) The felling of trees; the area to be felled, coupe réglée, coupes sombres, (figurative) drastic cuts.[3][2]
  3. The way a garment, hair or the like is cut: un manteau de bonne coupe.[3]
  4. A section, a drawing of something as if cut through.[3]
  5. (prosody) A caesura or break in a line of verse.[3]
  6. (cards) The cutting of the pack, être sous la coupe de quelqu'un, to be in someone's power.[3]
  7. (swimming) A stroke in which each arm is brought forward in turn.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  2. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ 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 27 28 29 Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1553a
  8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Coupe.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/coupe. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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