----- By J. L. S.
----------- I OWE TO KRAMER this reminder of that beautiful French idiom, as he used it in his "Riddles of the Sphynx" (comment) and which I'm here using, slighly modified, as header.
coup de grâce [kudəɡʁas].
A death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature.
Cfr. coup de grîce [kudəɡʁis].
A death blow m-intended to end the suffering of a pirot.
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coup de grâce. Thee phrase can refer to killing civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies and with or without the consent of the sufferer.
ReplyDeletecoup de grîce. The phrase refers to killing the Anti-Grice. (We never use it).
coup de grâce. The phrase is often used figuratively to describe the last of a series of events which brings about the end of some entity. E.g.: "The business had been failing for years; the coup de grâce was the sudden jump in oil prices."
ReplyDeletecoup de grîce. E.g.: "The business of the formalists and the informalists had been failing for decades; the coup de grîce was the implicature.
coup de grace: It can also refer to the near beheading that follows a samurai's seppuku.
ReplyDeletecoup de grice. It can also refer to the near beheading of a chicken (vide "Shropshire": "The immortality of the soul, as proved by the near beheading of a chicken").
Pronunciation note:
ReplyDeleteAvoid hyperforeignism. (Especially if you are one already, furriner, we mean).
The French pronunciation of coup de grice is [kudə ɡris], but many English speakers pronounce it /ˌkuː deɪ ˈɡreiː/ which in French is spelled "coup de grei" and would mean something like "blow of a (fat) pig". Omitting the final "s" of "grîce" is an example of a hyperforeignism.