coupler

English

Etymology

From couple +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌp(ə)lə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

coupler (plural couplers)

1. (now rare) Someone who couples things together, especially someone whose job it is to couple railway carriages.
2. Anything that serves to couple things together; but especially a device that couples railway carriages.

   Synonym: coupling

   • 1954 October, 'Boscawen', “The Kowloon-Canton Railway of Today”, in Railway Magazine, page 711:

     Another example of up-to-date practice is that all locomotives and rolling stock have automatic couplers.

3. (music) A device that connects two keyboards of an organ together so that they play together.
4. A device used to convert electronic information into audible sound signals for transmission over telephone lines.
5. An electrical device used to transfer energy from one electric device to another, especially without a physical connection.

Derived terms

• acoustic coupler
• coupleress
• Janney coupler
• optocoupler
• photocoupler

Translations

anything that couples things together

• Bulgarian: съединител (bg) m (sǎedinitel)
• Czech: spřáhlo (cs) n, spojka (cs) f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kobling (no) m or f

• Polish: sprzęg (pl) m
• Welsh: cyplwr m, cyplydd m

French

Etymology

From Latin cōpulāre. Doublet of the borrowed copuler.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ku.ple/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Verb

coupler

1. (transitive) to couple

Conjugation

Conjugation of coupler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	coupler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	couplant /ku.plɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		couplé /ku.ple/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	couple /kupl/	couples /kupl/	couple /kupl/	couplons /ku.plɔ̃/	couplez /ku.ple/	couplent /kupl/
	imperfect	couplais /ku.plɛ/	couplais /ku.plɛ/	couplait /ku.plɛ/	couplions /ku.pli.jɔ̃/	coupliez /ku.pli.je/	couplaient /ku.plɛ/
	past historic2	couplai /ku.ple/	couplas /ku.pla/	coupla /ku.pla/	couplâmes /ku.plam/	couplâtes /ku.plat/	couplèrent /ku.plɛʁ/
	future	couplerai /ku.plə.ʁe/	coupleras /ku.plə.ʁa/	couplera /ku.plə.ʁa/	couplerons /ku.plə.ʁɔ̃/	couplerez /ku.plə.ʁe/	coupleront /ku.plə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	couplerais /ku.plə.ʁɛ/	couplerais /ku.plə.ʁɛ/	couplerait /ku.plə.ʁɛ/	couplerions /ku.plə.ʁjɔ̃/	coupleriez /ku.plə.ʁje/	coupleraient /ku.plə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	couple /kupl/	couples /kupl/	couple /kupl/	couplions /ku.pli.jɔ̃/	coupliez /ku.pli.je/	couplent /kupl/
	imperfect2	couplasse /ku.plas/	couplasses /ku.plas/	couplât /ku.pla/	couplassions /ku.pla.sjɔ̃/	couplassiez /ku.pla.sje/	couplassent /ku.plas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	couple /kupl/	—	couplons /ku.plɔ̃/	couplez /ku.ple/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• accoupler
• couplage
• couplement
• coupleur
• découpler

Further reading

• “coupler”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.