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coupole

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Etymology and origin of the French word coupole

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1666 M. Thévenot More words from the 17th century
Borrowed from
Italian cupola
Ultimate origin
Latin cūpa

Pronunciation

Forms

coupole f (plural coupoles)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian cupola, an architectural term recorded in Italian from 1348–1363.[2][3][1] The Italian word comes, with a change of meaning, from Late Latin cūpula (“small tub, small cask”), a diminutive of cūpa (“tub, cask”), the source of coupe1 and cuve.[2][3][4] Bloch and Wartburg note that in Italian it lost its proper sense to the figurative one, the dome looking like an upturned vessel;[3] Littré likewise explains it by comparison with an upturned cup.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1666, in M. Thévenot, for a hemispherical vault.[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Besides the vault, the word named the outside of a dome and the dome itself.[6][5] By metonymy la Coupole is the Institut de France in Paris, which stands under a dome, and especially the Académie française, so that être reçu sous la Coupole means to be elected to the Academy.[2][7] La Coupole du Rocher is the Dome of the Rock, the mosque built in Jerusalem by the caliph Abd al-Malik in 688–691.[2] By likeness of shape it is also used for astronomical observatories and for the armoured turrets of guns.[2][7] Poetically it has been used for the vault of the sky.[6]

An English technical word, probably an alteration of cupola or coupole, came back into French as cubilot, a kind of furnace, in 1841.[2]

Timeline

  • 1666 – First record, in M. Thévenot.[6][2]
  • 1841 – Cubilot comes back into French from English.[2]
  • 1875 – A homograph coupole “wine-tasting cup” is recorded.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (architecture) A cupola, the hemispherical vault of a dome over a building.[7][8]
  2. La Coupole: the Institut de France, and especially the Académie française: être reçu sous la Coupole, to be elected to the Academy.[7][2]
  3. The dome of an observatory.[7][2]
  4. (military) An armoured turret topped with a dome.[7][2]

Usage notes

The Grand Robert lists a separate coupole (its 1. coupole), a small cup used for tasting wine, recorded in the Journal officiel in 1875; the TLFi takes it as probably an alteration of coupelle under the influence of this word.[4][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  6. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  7. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b c 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

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Coupole.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/coupole. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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