Courage

How to spell courage

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce courage

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does courage mean?

1. nounThe ability to face danger, difficulty, or pain without being overcome by fear.

Courage in a sentence

• It took real courage to report the fraud to her managers.

• The firefighters showed great courage during the rescue.

Where does courage come from?

Language of origin: French

Courage comes from the Old French word corage, which meant the heart as the seat of feelings, temper, or spirit, and that in turn grew from the Latin cor, meaning literally 'heart'. The same Latin cor is the hidden ancestor of words like 'cordial' and 'core', which is a useful reminder that courage was once understood as something felt in the heart rather than the mind. English borrowed the word in the 1200s, and for centuries it could mean anything stored up in the heart: anger, inclination, or affection, not only bravery. Over time the meaning narrowed to the modern sense of facing danger or pain without giving way to fear. The spelling preserves that French route into English, which is why we keep the -our- in the middle and the soft -age ending rather than spelling it the way it sounds.

How the word is built

• cour- (from Old French cuer, heart)
• -age (noun suffix forming a state or quality)