The Little Venice-Colmar in France. (Photo source: French Govt. website)
My son, who is a great travel enthusiast, was visiting Thailand last week when I saw the news of a Military Coup there. My thoughts went back to a small piece which I had written in 2000 and was published in a newspaper. Let me share that with you.
In the Nineteen sixties and seventies, this phrase used to come up in the news with frightening frequency. Mercifully, there has hardly been any occasion to use this phrase during the last decade or so. But after the recent events in one of our neighbouring countries, this dreaded word is back in currency.
Consulting my old faithful dictionaries, I found that ‘Coup d’Etat’ has been defined in a somewhat general way as an ‘illegal stroke of state policy’ or a ‘violent or subversive stroke of state policy’. Not fully satisfied and hoping to refresh my memory and pick up finer nuances of the phrase, I turned to my 166 page French-English/English-French dictionary in small print.
I was rudely disappointed as the relevant entry describing that French expression ‘Coup d’Etat’ as ‘coup (d’etat)’ in English did not say anything much. However my attention got diverted as I came across a large number of usages of the French word ‘coup’. For some strange reason, as a general rule, the last syllabus of French words is not pronounced. So ‘coup’ meaning a knock is pronounced as ‘koo’.
The common usage of coup is in the sense of a physical shock of hitting. It is also used in the sense of a moral shock, for example, ‘un coup dur’ means a stroke of bad luck, ‘dur’ meaning hard. ‘Donner un coup de telephone’ means giving a tinkle to someone.
Another usage of coup has something to do with an activity with which the French are universally and undisputedly associated with- love. ‘Coup de foudre’ in French means falling in love at first sight.
No, ‘coup de grace’ does not have anything to do with grace- it has a fairly negative connotation meaning the final blow.
While ‘coup d’oeil’ means having a quick look, ‘coup de soleil’ is something which the French normally do not get while they are in France- a sunstroke!
Chiffon in English may be used as a piece of fine cloth, but in French, it means only a rag. A ‘coup de chiffon’ denotes a bit of dusting with a piece of cloth.
Another word which is pronounced in exactly the same way, but has different spellings and means something quite different is ‘cout’ denoting the cost of something.
Last year (1999) the entire France had gone almost hysterical with joy and excitement when its team had won the Football World Cup called ‘Coupe du Monde’. ‘Coupe’ here is pronounced as ‘koup’ and means a cup. Yet another similar word is ‘coupe’, also pronounced as ‘koup’ which is derived from the French verb ‘couper’ which means to cut.
The American Secretary of State Ms. Madeline Albright is reported to have remarked pithily about Europe last year (1999), “To understand Europe, you have to be a genius or French”. Borrowing from the above, may we say that too understand the French language, you have to be either French or a genius!
Bon chance!
. . .
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