# courage
## English
### 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: /ˈkʌɹ.ɪdʒ/
* (US) IPA: /ˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/, /ˈkɝ.ɪd͡ʒ/
** Audio (US, without the hurry–furry merger):(file)
** Audio (US, hurry–furry merger):(file)
* (South Asia) IPA: /kaˈɾeːd͡ʒ/

### Noun

courage (usually uncountable, plural courages)
* 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: […], volume (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.
* 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.
* 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

* courageless
* courage of one's convictions
* courageous
* digital courage
* discourage
* Dutch courage
* encourage
* gather up one's courage
* liquid courage
* pluck up one's courage
* screw up one's courage
* take courage
* take one's courage in both hands

#### Related terms

* cardiac

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

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

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ku.ʁaʒ/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -aʒ

### Noun

courage m (plural courages)
* courage
    Synonym: bravoure
    Le courage est à mi-chemin entre la lâcheté et la témérité. ― Courage is the median between cowardice and foolhardiness.

#### 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)
* → Norwegian Nynorsk: korjøsk, korjørsk
* → Romanian: curaj
* → Russian: кураж (kuraž)

### Interjection

courage !
* chin up! keep going! take heart!

#### Usage notes

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

### References

* ↑ Tatoeba No. 11942121

### Further reading

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