coupe
pronunciation
How to pronounce coupe in British English:
UK [ˈku:peɪ]
How to pronounce coupe in American English:
US [kuˈpeɪ]
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- Noun:
- a car with two doors and front seats and a luggage compartment
Word Origin
- coupé
- coupé: [19] Coupé is the past participle of the French verb couper ‘cut’, and it was originally applied in the early 19th century to a type of four-wheeled covered carriage (in full a carrosse coupé ‘cut-off carriage’). The notion behind the term is a truncated version of an earlier type of coach, known as a berlin, achieved by removing the rear seat. The first record of its application to closed two-door cars comes in 1908.The French verb couper is a derivative of the noun coup ‘blow’ (itself borrowed into English in the 18th century), which in turn came from medieval Latin colpus (ultimate source of English coppice, which etymologically denotes the ‘cutting down’ of trees). Earlier in time the word can be traced back via Latin colaphus to Greek kólaphos ‘blow, punch’.A related word is coupon, borrowed from French in the 19th century.=> coppice, copse, coup
- coupe (n.)
- 1834, from French coupe (18c.), noun use of past participle of couper "to cut (in half);" see coup. Modern use is from early 19c. carrosse coupe "cut-off carriage," a shorter version of the berlin, minus the back seat. First applied to closed two-door automobiles 1908.
Example
- 1. " It 's a blue car , a coupe . "
- 2. So you want a second-hand sports coupe that makes sense without costing a fortune .
- 3. One owns a maroon mercury coupe .
- 4. The e class coupe and mercedes glk were newcomers to the list of top picks this year .
- 5. While waiting at a traffic light , they saw a black mercedes coupe on one side and a homeless man begging for food on the other .