Revised as of 14 Nov 2021
It was that “chicken coupe” on Pinterest… I loved the idea of the fridge painted up to look like a cage of chickens…but when the writer tells me it’s a coupe. Well, I’m’a lookin’ for the wheels on the thing. Some doors.
Of course, that got me to thinking how much I’d love to paint my fridge to look like a chicken coop, but then I got to thinking some more. About George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Nope, I don’t care if it’s a coupe or a coup, but those chickens might stage a coup. Right there in my kitchen! Can you imagine all those feathers a’flying out of the coop, as the coupe races past the cupboards!?
Word Confusions…
…started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noir for you from either end.
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| Co-op | Coop | Coup | Coupe / Coupé |
|---|---|---|---|
Cook County Whole Foods Co-Op, Grand Marais, Minnesota, by Tony Webster is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Flickr. |
Chicken Coop, 18 May 2019, Trimingham, England, is Kolforn’s own work under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Turkish Soldiers in Coup by kalhh (pixabay.com) is in the public domain, via Needpix. |
Coupe by Thomas Bau is under the CC0 license, via Pxhere. |
| Part of Grammar: | |||
| Abbreviation; Adjective; Noun; Verb, transitive
Plural for the noun and third person present verb: co-ops Alternate spelling: coop, co-operative |
Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun and third person present verb: coops |
Noun
Plural: coups |
Noun 1, 2, 3
Plural: coupes, coupés |
| Abbreviation: Cooperative Adjective: Noun: Verb, transitive: |
Noun: A cage or pen for where poultry or other small animals are confined for fattening, transportation, etc. [British] A basket used in catching fish Any small or narrow place {Slang] A prison [Sometimes facetious] A cooperative, especially the cooperative bookstore of a college or university Verb, intransitive: Verb, transitive:
|
[Also coup d’état] A sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government
A notable or successful stroke or move
[Historical; among North American Indians] An act of touching an armed enemy in battle as a deed of bravery, or an act of first touching an item of the enemy’s in order to claim it A contusion caused by contact of the brain with the skull at the point of trauma |
A shallow glass or glass dish, typically with a stem, in which desserts or champagne are served 1
Any rimless plate [Historical] A short, four-wheeled, closed carriage, usually with a single seat for two passengers facing forward and an outside seat for the driver 2 An end compartment in a railroad car, with seats on only one side [Ballet] An intermediary step to transfer the weight from one foot to the other A car with a fixed roof, usually with a sloping back, and two doors that is shorter than a sedan of the same model 3 |
| Examples: | |||
| Abbreviation: See all the below. Adjective: Hey, have you heard about those co-op multiplayer games? Noun: Co-ops have a bad reputation for exclusiveness. Most farms are part of the local co-op. The company is a workers co-op. A housing co-op is a unique type of home ownership. Verb, transitive: Since our apartment building co-opped, we have a lot more say in how things are run. |
Noun: I’ve been seeing some fantastic chicken coops on Pinterest. We need a better chicken coop. He’ll fly the coop one day, hon. Break out the coop, young Liam, we’re angling today. Verb, intransitive: He coops in his ride or in this guy’s bar. Verb, transitive: You’d better coop up them chickens. Jamey cooped up the rooster yesterday. Free-range poultry may have been as cooped up as conventional poultry. Does the thought of being cooped up indoors watching a game bore you to tears? |
He was overthrown in an army coup.
It was a major coup to get such a prestigious contract. There are four primary coups: Scissors coup, Trump coup, Devil’s coup, or Vienna coup. A coup stick records the coups attained by a warrior. A coup injury is associated with a moving object impacting on a stationary head. |
Champagne in a coupe tends to lose its fizz too quickly.
Sundaes sate; a coupe scintillates, leaving you wanting more. “The minimalist aesthetic of a coupe plate delivers a blank canvas that will naturally draw the eye to the food rather than what it’s being served on” (Jones). “To come to the Opera in a Brown coupe was almost as honourable a way of arriving as in one’s own carriage.” – Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence Small four-wheel railway cars were built on the coupé plan for narrow gauge application. A coupé is usually done as an in-between step for a larger step, such as a coupé jeté or a coupé-chassé en tournant. She chose the coupe rather than the sedan. A crossover coupé is like a coupé, only it’s stilted up like an SUV. |
| Derivatives: | |||
| Adjective: cooperative Noun: co-oper, cooperative |
Verb, transitive: uncoop | ||
| History of the Word: | |||
| A mid-19th century abbreviation from the early 17th century, from the late Latin cooperativus, from the Latin cooperat- meaning worked together, from the verb cooperari. | Middle English cowpe is related to the Dutch kuip meaning vat and the German Kufe meaning cask, based on the Latin cupa. | Late 18th century, from the French, which is from the medieval Latin colpus meaning blow. |
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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan…which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them…and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions by exploring the index. You may also want to explore Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, and/or the Properly Punctuated.
Resources for Co-op vs Coop vs Coup vs Coupe/Coupé
Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: co-op, coop, coupe
Jones. Ross “Choosing the Right Shape of Plates.” Nisbets. n.d. Web. 25 Feb 2020. <https://www.nisbets.co.uk/foodplatingtrendsshapesofplates>.
Lexico.com: coop
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Chicken on a Weekly Market, Mallorca, by Brunhilde Reinig is under the CC0 license, via Public Domain Pictures.net. Its background was removed with lumber added on the right, and then the photograph was tilted slightly. Pink Cadillac Coupe by Emslichter, <https://pixabay.com/users/Emslichter-1377910/>, is under the Pixabay License, via Pixabay. Its roof was removed. Flag of the Animal Farm by RootOfAllLight is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. The flag was warped to give it movement. Жезл для ку is in the public domain courtesy of A Song for the Horse Nation. The background was removed and the image was tilted with some of the decorations erased to give the impression of being behind the coop. These last two are via Wikimedia Commons. All adjustments were made in Photoshop.
