# coup de grâce



## vlight

How exactly would one translate "coup de grace"

Moderator note: Several threads merged to make this one.


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## Artrella

Well, according to my CIDE it translates "coup de grâce".  Here the definition:
Definition
coup de grâce   noun [S] FORMAL
an action which ends something that has been gradually worsening or which kills a person or animal in order to end their suffering:
_Jane's affair was the coup de grâce to her disintegrating marriage._

Definition
coup de grâce coup m de grâce

_(from Dictionnaire Cambridge Klett Compact)_


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## Jabote

Coup de grâce = coup de grâce, I agree with artrella.

You can also say "final blow"


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## atlantaguy33

In school we were taught that it meant loosely "death blow" or "final blow."  I think the original definition listed above is truer to its original intention as a "hit of grace " or a "hit of mercy." It is one of those French phrases that English intelligensia adopted to portray an idea without ever translating it.


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## Agnès E.

atlantaguy33 said:
			
		

> In school we were taught that it meant loosely "death blow" or "final blow." I think the original definition listed above is truer to its original intention as a "hit of grace " or a "hit of mercy." It is one of those French phrases that English intelligensia adopted to portray an idea without ever translating it.



In old French (middle-age), "merci" was the word for our current "pitié" (your mercy) and we use the verb "grâce présidentielle" for "grant a presidential pardon"...


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## la grive solitaire

Artrella's defiinition is a good one; I've also seen it used in English as a synomym for "mercy killing" or a "merciful killing."


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## Eddie

Comment dit-on *coup de grâce* en anglais et dans quelles circonstances à part l'escrime est-ce qu'on l'utilise?


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## RobInAustin

It is exactly the same. "Coup de grace" is used in English often just as is, and describes the final blow, the death blow, the final act by someone.

ie: "The coup de grace for Enron came when the scandals were reported in the New York times."

or "The coup de grace for that new play was delivered by the terrible review by the critics".

Cheers,
Rob


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## LV4-26

Yes, it's one of those words or expressions, like "déjà vu" or "rendezvous" or "cliché" which give the lie to the idea that the "export" of words always works in the same direction.


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## chouchou4484

Hello.

What verb would you use in English when using coup de grace, or final blow, or any of the possibilities listed above? In French it's porter but I have a feeling that it won't be bear in English.

Thank you.


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## wildan1

I think the nuance of a "blow of mercy" is lost in the English adaptation of _coup de grace. _

At least in AE, _coup de grace_ is a synonym for _final blow_ or even _the last straw_ in a figurative sense--painless or not. And when describing figurative final blows, they usually are not painless!


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## Agent Literary

chouchou4484 said:


> What verb would you use in English when using coup de grace, or final blow, or any of the possibilities listed above?
> In French it's porter but I have a feeling that it won't be bear in English.


You would, I think, "_give_ the coup de grâce".


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## Geordie_Wilber

Administer? Deliver?


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## david314

Reopened : 

I recently saw the following English to French translation: _Attendre *le coup de grâce*_ /* Waiting for the other shoe to drop.*

Does it work? 

 I'm beginning to believe that I am the victim of a translator who obviously doesn't use the forum - ah, oui, c'est grave!


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## dewsy

Not convinced david. 
Waiting for the other shoe to drop/waiting for something bad to happen doesn't have that same 'put 'em out of their misery' feel to it.

That's just my opinion though


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## LV4-26

It is true that the original notion of _relieving someone of their suffering_ has been lost in French, over the years, pretty much in the same way as it was lost when the expression was adopted by English speakers.

To be exact, I guess most  of the French speakers who use it are not aware of that idea. But that doesn't mean "all of them".

But as it is, I see it as generally more neutral than really negative. It's just the final blow, with no particular sadism involved, especially because (to me) it reflects the victim's or a third party's (rather than the agent's) point of view.
Saying this, I'm particularly thinking of a sentence like "ce fut le coup de grâce".


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## roxynounette

Bonjour à tous, 

je me demandais comment traduire l'expression "coup de grâce". je vous donne le contexte: 

"D'abord nous eûmes le feu deux fois dans l'année, puis la grève des ouvrières, puis notre brouille avec l'oncle Baptiste (...) et enfin la révolution de 18 qui nous donne le coup de grâce."
s'il n'existe pas d'expression similaire, je peux peut etre traduire par "achever"?


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## Missrapunzel

Oui, sinon peut-être tu peux utiliser "the last straw (that broke the camel's back)" qui est l'équivalent français de la goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase.


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## cyberpedant

The phrase "coup de grâce" has been completely assimilated into English (with the exception that the last word is often pronounced as if it were "gras.")


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## franc 91

that really put an end to it all (there wasn't any point in carrying on after that)


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## edwingill

"deathblow"


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## The Prof

Maybe: ... _which finally finished us off!_


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## Egmont

This phrase is often used in English without translation, though the accent is sometimes omitted.


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## LART01

Yes
it is_ coup de gr*a*ce_ in english and seems to work for both languages in literal and figurative sense.


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## edwingill

"that's the last straw"


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## Keith Bradford

_*The final blow, the winning blow, the coup de grace...*_

I don't think it's often used now with the sense of "putting someone out of their misery".


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## hampton.mc

Non c'est plutôt utilisé pour enfoncer encore plus quelqu'un.


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## Ganfov

A little historical clarification:
Many people believe that the famous guillotine was the only mode of execution in France until 1981, but they are mistaken: the fusillade also existed. It was used if the guillotine ("les bois de justice") could not be transported to the place of execution. Shooting was also used for death sentences handed down by military courts and for offences against state security tried by civilian courts (most often proven espionage and treason).
Cf. _Code de justice militaire de l'armée de terre_, 1857: art. 187. " Tout individu condamné à la peine de mort par un conseil de guerre est fusillé." (Anyone sentenced to death by a military council will be shot.)
When, following a civil or military trial, a person had to be shot, a firing squad of twelve soldiers was formed to shoot the victim. After the death salvo was fired at the chest, at a target fixed on the heart, the officer who commanded the execution of the sentence had the horrible task of giving the coup de grâce to the person shot by firing a revolver bullet into his head. This is well recorded in Stanley Kubrick's film "Paths of Glory".


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## Aristide

Ganfov said:


> A little historical clarification:


Ce n'est pas le sujet du fil, mais quand on fusille quelqu'un, ce n'est pas une fusillade. La fusillade est un échange de coups de feu. Cest quelque chose d'interactif. Pour qu'on puisse parler de fusillade quand un type se fait fusiller, il faudrait qu'il riposte en sortant soudain un pistolet de derrière son dos. C'est sûrement très rare.


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## Ganfov

Aristide said:


> quand on fusille quelqu'un, ce n'est pas une fusillade.



Hum, hum... Désolé de te contredire, Aristide.
Très humblement, si tu avais raison, ce serait contre l'avis de George Clémenceau et du  général de Gaulle ! (cf. citation ci-dessous, tirée de l'excellent site cnrtl.fr, lexicographie.)

Définition de _fusillade_ sur le site du CNRTL :
FUSILLADE : Définition de FUSILLADE

− _En partic._ Décharge simultanée de fusils pour exécuter un condamné à mort. _L'obéissance de machine vivante, obtenue par la crainte du conseil de guerre et de la fusillade qui est au bout_ (Clemenceau, _Iniquité,_1899, p. 108)._Les maquis engagent en détail la lutte contre l'occupant, qui se venge par des fusillades, des incendies, des arrestations d'otages_ (De Gaulle, _Mém. guerre,_1956, p. 170)

Tu vas donc à l'encontre de l'utilisation du mot par un Président du Conseil et un Président de la République française...
Ça, ce n'est pas se moucher du pied ! Mais c'est ton choix, et il ne mérite quand même pas le peloton d'exécution, ou, si tu préfères, la fusillade...


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## Aristide

Ganfov said:


> l'avis de George Clémenceau et du général de Gaulle


Extrait de la biographie de Mary Plummer, épouse de Clémenceau:
"Though Clemenceau had many mistresses, when his wife took as her lover a tutor of their children, he had her put in jail for two weeks and sent her back to the United States on a steamer in third class. He divorced her, obtained custody of their children and had her stripped of her French nationality."

J'aurais honte de tenir compte de l'avis d'un type pareil. Son opinion ne vaut rien. Quant à De Gaulle, il est mort il y a plus de 50 ans. Et même de son vivant, il était quand même extrêmement vieux jeu.

Je suis susceptible quand il s'agit du mot fusillade, car j'ai remarqué que quand un type désarmé se fait tirer dessus dans la rue, les journalistes ont tendance à parler de "fusillade" pour minimiser l'agression en faisant croire qu'il était lui-même armé. (Tout comme ils parlent de "rixe mortelle", quand on se fait fracasser le crâne par derrière).


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## Ganfov

Cher Aristide,
Le fait que Clémenceau se soit comporté comme un salop avec sa femme n'a rien à voir avec son utilisation du mot "fusillade".
Quant à de Gaulle, c'est un fin utilisateur de la langue française.

Si tu es _"susceptible au sujet du mot fusillade"_, c'est parce que pour toi il signifie "échange de coups de feu" alors que fusillade veut à l'origine dire "décharge simultanée de plusieurs armes à feu" et par extension "combat à coups d'armes à feu."
Le mot est couramment utilisé aujourd'hui pour décrire les exécutions de la Shoah par balle et il se retrouve dans tous les écrits universitaires sérieux à ce sujet, par exemple : "Les Fusillades massives des juifs en Ukraine, 1941-1944. La Shoah par balle."
La Shoah par balles - Mémorial de la Shoah

Le dictionnaire _Robert _en ligne, très allusif, donne pour _fusillade _:
1. Échange de coups de feu.
2. Décharge simultanée de coups de fusil.

Le dictionnaire _Larousse, _toujours pour _fusillade _:
1. Échange de coups de feu : Brève fusillade au cours d'un hold-up.
2. Décharge simultanée de plusieurs fusils, en particulier pour fusiller quelqu'un

On disait autrefois "arquebusade" ou "mousquetade" et on a de même aujourd'hui "canonnade" qui ne signifie pas uniquement "échange de coups de canon" mais aussi "décharge simultanée ou répétée de coups de canon".


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