What is the meaning of the idiomatic phrase “coup de gras?” I doubt it is a fat revolution! 
Well, first off, unless it’s a foie gras that you plan to make into pate, the victim need not be gras at all. It’s a coup de grace, and the meaning has migrated.
First, let’s imagine you a gentil knight, sans peur et sans reproche. You set forth on deeds of derring do, writing wrongs, defending the defenseless, and generally defeating evil. But the next question is, what do you do with evil once you’ve defeated it? And the answer was, put it out of its misery. Once you’ve overthrown and dehorsed it, and it’s bleeding from incurable wounds, killing it to avoid prolonging its suffering is an act of mercy, a coup de grace in the original and literal sense.
From that, it’s evolved to take on the meaning of any morally positive strong and final action, comme ci ou comme ca. But that’s where it came from.
Either all of the above or it’s french for lawnmower.
What Poly said or… you’re dealing with a chevalier sans beurre et sans reproche.
A knight without butter?
What else would you need to administer a coup de gras ?
:smack: Too early and not enough coffee for puns. Especially ones in a language I don’t speak!
A butter knife would do it, I think.
Pierre de Terrail, Seigneur de Bayard, chevalier sans peur et sans reproche, the “knight without fear and without reproach.” I imagine he did on occasion have some butter.
But can a “gentil knight, sans peur et sans reproche” actually administer the coup de grâce? In the original sense, the coup de grâce was essentially euthanasia, which the Church has never accepted. Would the Church see it as a “morally positive” act? I wouldn’t have thought so - and I’ve always thought it as having a morally ambiguous sense, although certainly final.
That would be Don Quixote. His loyal Sancho Panza, OTOH, used to ride a donkey.
No, no, no - it’s a chevalier sans beurre et sans brioche!
Obviously, that’s a knight who’s on a quest during the Lenten season, after Mardi gras.
Chivalry, for all the lip service it paid to the Church, was very much a separate thing. If it was a matter of choosing between what chivalry said, and what the Church said, the typical knight would do what chivalry said and add another verse to his confession. The Church fulminated against tournaments too, and nobody listened.
(Technically, a knight who died in a tournament was guilty of the sin of suicide.)
By Chia Motors
Coup de grace is an interesting phrase, in that it is meaningful in two unrelated languages. In French, it means something like “death blow”. Meanwhile, in the Quatzacocl language of native Ecuador it means “Can’t you just look it up on Wikipedia like everybody else?”. A curious linguistic coincidence, I think you’ll agree.
Alternatively, you could hunt around on the Internet until you find a web-site with a forum called “General Questions” which invites people to post questions for others to answer.
Questions to which the answer isn’t readily available, yes.
What better way to stay lubricated inside a suit of armor? Otherwise, the metal would chafe your skin.