courage

Borrowed from Old French corage (French courage), from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor (“heart”). Distantly related to cardiac (“of the heart”), which is from Greek, but from the same Proto-Indo-European root.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌɹɪdʒ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌɹɪdʒ/, /ˈkɝɪdʒ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

    (accents without the "Hurry-furry" merger)

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

    (accents with the "Hurry-furry" merger)

courage (usually uncountable, plural courages)

1. The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate.

   It takes a lot of courage to be successful in business.

   • 1860, Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life:

     A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

2. The ability to do things which one finds frightening.

   He plucked up the courage to tell her how he felt.

   • 1893, Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson and those Extraordinary Twins‎, page 115:

     Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.

• See also Thesaurus:courage

• cardiac

courage (third-person singular simple present courages, present participle couraging, simple past and past participle couraged)

1. (obsolete) To encourage. [15^th-17^thc.]
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter x, in Le Morte Darthur, book XIX:

     And wete yow wel sayd kynge Arthur vnto Vrres syster I shalle begynne to handle hym and serche vnto my power not presumyng vpon me that I am soo worthy to hele youre sone by my dedes / but I wille courage other men of worshyp to doo as I wylle doo

   • 1530, William Tyndale, "An Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue":

     Paul writeth unto Timothy, to instruct him, to teach him, to exhort, to courage him, to stir him up,

• fearlessness
• bield

cœur +‎ -age or Middle French corage, from Old French corage, from Vulgar Latin *coraticum, from Latin cor.

• IPA^(key): /ku.ʁaʒ/

• audio

  (file)

courage m (plural courages)

1. courage

   Synonym: bravoure

• courageux
  • courageusement
• décourager
  • décourageant
  • découragement
• encourager
  • encourageant
  • encouragement

• → Alemannic German: Karäschi
• → Romanian: curaj

courage !

1. Chin up! Keep going!

"bon courage !" has a slightly different meaning: "good luck!".

• “courage” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).