Coupe

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kuːp/

Definitions

1. A car with two doors and a fixed roof designed for style and performance ; a type of horse-drawn carriage featuring a closed compartment for passengers
2. A vehicle having two side doors and a hardtop roof emphasizing sporty appearance ; a carriage pulled by horses that has an enclosed seating area
3. An automobile style characterized by a pair of doors and a solid roof, often seen as sleek ; an enclosed coach from the horse-drawn era used for carrying passengers

Etymology: The English "coupe" for a two-door car is borrowed from French "coupé," the past participle of "couper," meaning "to cut." The French term was used for a carriage with a shortened body, a vehicle "cut" down from a fuller design, and English took it over in that sense before it came to mean a closed car with two doors and a sloping rear. The shortened body is the whole idea behind the name. The same French word "coupe" also came into English as a noun for a drinking vessel or bowl, and that is the source of its surprising relationship with "cup." The two English words are doublets: both descend from the same Latin ancestor, "cuppa," a bowl, and they reached English by different routes, one through the French-derived "coupe" and the other through Old English. The word "cup" is older in English, but "coupe" carries the same bowl-shaped sense with a French accent.

Synonyms: car, automobile, vehicle