# What is a "coup de gras"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2007, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110 "2007-06-23T10:08:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110/21 "2007-06-23T19:10:08Z")
[QUOTE=Tully Mars] What better way to stay lubricated inside a suit of armor? Otherwise, the metal would chafe your skin. [/QUOTE] No, non, no. You are talking about the **rancid** knight. Better known as the _chevalier sent beurre et sans reproche_. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110/22 "2007-06-23T19:10:33Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] Questions to which the answer isn’t readily available, yes. [/QUOTE] Funny, that qualification doesn’t show up on my monitor’s display of the GQ description: > [@Straight Dope Message Board Homepage](#): > > General Questions > Got a factual question for the Teeming Millions (and possibly Cecil) to consider? Post it here. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110/23 "2007-06-23T19:14:08Z")
> [@detop](#): > > [Quote=Tully Mars] > > What better way to stay lubricated inside a suit of armor? Otherwise, the metal would chafe your skin. No, non, no. You are talking about the rancid knight. Better known as the chevalier sent beurre et sans reproche. [/quote] And the smell of rancid butter combined with manly knightly perspiration will make medieval chicks swoon over you… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110/24 "2007-06-23T19:28:50Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] _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. [/QUOTE] I would have said that to do so you would first have had to know how to spell it, but interestingly the first Google hit for “coup de gras” is in fact the Wikipedia page on [coup de grâce](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup_de_gr%C3%A2ce). ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110/25 "2007-06-23T20:31:39Z")
By the way, I don’t believe “coup de gras” means anything different in Ecuadorian Quechua than it does in English – a French loan word. As for “Quatzacocls” – and mussels, alive, alive oh! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110/26 "2007-06-23T20:36:14Z")
On the other hand, perhaps we Americans might take a moment to remember Francois-Joseph-Paul, Comte de Grasse, Amiral de France, who never committed a coup de grace AFAIK, but whose deft seamanship with a numerically inferior fleet helped neutralize the British naval superiority during the American Revolution, and whose blockade of the last British HQ at Yorktown while Washington pursued the land siege essentially brought it to a successful end. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110/27 "2007-06-23T21:23:21Z")
Gadzooks! I’m dazzled by all the witty erudition in this thread, all triggered by a simple question about a misspelled French phrase, _coup de gras_. I came here to suggest it meant a small bowl of chive soup, but that would be lame in these quarters. So, like a Spanish sailor, armada here. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110/28 "2007-06-23T21:27:08Z")
Coup de Gras is when you give the nasty little scum bag whos been trying to kill you and your mates,and whos been killing civilians happily for a decade but who when caught play the human rights stuff,a little bit of mercy ,that is you give him a quick end ,something he never ever gave to old people ,children and the poor sods who happened to be guilty of being from the wrong religion. Am I talking about Iraq? Yes I am ,but I’m also talking about the murderous ,criminal scum from the provisional I.R.A\> ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110/29 "2007-06-23T21:44:35Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] Coup de Gras is when you give the nasty little scum bag whos been trying to kill you and your mates,and whos been killing civilians happily for a decade but who when caught play the human rights stuff,a little bit of mercy ,that is you give him a quick end ,something he never ever gave to old people ,children and the poor sods who happened to be guilty of being from the wrong religion. Am I talking about Iraq? Yes I am ,but I’m also talking about the murderous ,criminal scum from the provisional I.R.A\> [/QUOTE] [Moderating] **Lust4Life** , this post is not appropriate for GQ. Political comments such as this do not belong here. If you wish to discuss Iraq or the IRA in these terms, please start a thread in the Pit. Please do not do this again. **Colibri** General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110/30 "2007-06-23T23:29:33Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] On the other hand, perhaps we Americans might take a moment to remember Francois-Joseph-Paul, Comte de Grasse, Amiral de France, who never committed a coup de grace AFAIK, but whose deft seamanship with a numerically inferior fleet helped neutralize the British naval superiority during the American Revolution, and whose blockade of the last British HQ at Yorktown while Washington pursued the land siege essentially brought it to a successful end. [/QUOTE] And who is presently remembered by having a TV show named after him : _DeGrassi, the next generation_. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110/31 "2007-06-23T23:38:55Z")
[QUOTE=Promethea] Either all of the above or it’s french for lawnmower. 😉 [/QUOTE] No joke! It could very well be because a phone call is a coup de phone! (Those French just love to use the word “coup” as often as possible! 😉 - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110/32 "2007-06-23T23:42:16Z")
[QUOTE=detop] And who is presently remembered by having a TV show named after him : _DeGrassi, the next generation_. [/QUOTE] As Patrick Stewart said to the Singer Corp. repairman sent to service his malfunctioning Select-a-Stitch machine: “Make it sew!” 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-coup-de-gras/409110.md?page=1)