courage definition

English courage definition

Etymology

From Middle English corage, 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. Displaced Middle English elne, ellen, from Old English ellen (“courage, valor”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌɹ.ɪdʒ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/, /ˈkɝ.ɪd͡ʒ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

    (accents without the hurry-furry merger)

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

    (accents with the hurry-furry merger)

Noun

courage (usually uncountable, plural courages)

1. The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate.
   • 1860, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Essay IV. Culture.”, in The Conduct of Life, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 120:

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

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:

     There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.

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

2. The ability to overcome one's fear, do or live things which one finds frightening.

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

   • 1897, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “[Pudd’nhead Wilson] Chapter XII”, in The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson: And the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 155:

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

3. The ability to maintain one's will or intent despite either the experience of fear, frailty, or frustration; or the occurrence of adversity, difficulty, defeat or reversal. Moral fortitude.
   • 1942, C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters:

     “Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.”

   • 1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:

     I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

   • 1993, Stanley P. Cornils, The Mourning After: How to Manage Grief Wisely:

     Courage isn't having the strength to go on - it is going on when you don't have strength.

   • 2008, Maya Angelou, address for the 2008 Cornell University commencement

     Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

   • 2008, Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Screenplay:

     I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:courage

Derived terms

Related terms

• cardiac

Translations

Verb

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

1. (obsolete) To encourage. [15th–17th c.]
   • 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

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 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,

See also

• fearlessness
• bield

French courage definition

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French corage, from Old French corage, from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ku.ʁaʒ/

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʒ

Noun

courage m (plural courages)

1. courage

   Synonym: bravoure

Derived terms

• bon courage
• courageux
  • courageusement
• décourager
  • décourageant
  • découragement
• encourager
  • encourageant
  • encouragement
• prendre son courage à deux mains

Descendants

• → Bulgarian: кураж (kuraž)
• → Macedonian: кураж (kuraž)
• → Romanian: curaj
• → Russian: кураж (kuraž)

Interjection

courage !

1. chin up! keep going! take heart!

Usage notes

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

Further reading

• “courage”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.