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coupe

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

coupe1 cup

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

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