courage

See also: Courage

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French corage (French courage), from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor (“heart”). Distantly related to cardiac (“of the heart”), which is from Greek, but from the same Proto-Indo-European root.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌɹɪdʒ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌɹɪdʒ/, /ˈkɝɪdʒ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

    (accents without the "Hurry-furry" merger)

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

    (accents with the "Hurry-furry" merger)

Noun

courage (usually uncountable, plural courages)

1. The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate.

   It takes a lot of courage to be successful in business.

   • 1860, Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life:

     A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

2. The ability to do things which one finds frightening.

   He plucked up the courage to tell her how he felt.

   • 1893, Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson and those Extraordinary Twins‎^[1], page 115:

     Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:courage

Derived terms

Terms derived from courage

• courage of one's convictions

• courageous

• discourage

• encourage

Related terms

• cardiac

Translations

quality of a confident character

• Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
• Afrikaans: moed (af), dapperheid
• Albanian: guxim (sq) m, trimëri (sq) f
• Amharic: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: شَجَاعَة‎‎ f (šajāʿa)
• Aragonese: corache m
• Armenian: քաջություն (hy) (kʿaǰutʿyun), արիություն (hy) (ariutʿyun), խիզախություն (hy) (xizaxutʿyun)
• Assamese: সাহ (xah), সাহস (xahox)
• Asturian: coraxe m, bravura f, braveza f
• Azerbaijani: cəsarət (az)
• Bashkir: батырлыҡ (batïrlïq), ҡыйыулыҡ (qïyïwlïq), тәүәккәллек (täwäkkällek), баҙнатлыҡ (baðnatlïq)
• Basque: kemen
• Belarusian: сме́ласць f (smjélascʹ), хра́брасць f (xrábrascʹ), адва́га f (adváha), му́жнасць f (múžnascʹ)
• Bengali: সাহস (shahôs)
• Breton: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: сме́лост (bg) f (smélost), хра́брост (bg) f (hrábrost), кура́ж (bg) m (kuráž)
• Burmese: သူရသတ္ (sura.sat,)
• Catalan: coratge (ca) m, valor (ca) m
• Chechen: please add this translation if you can
• Cherokee: ᎠᎵᎦᎵᏴᎯ (aligaliyvhi)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 勇氣 (zh), 勇气 (zh) (yǒngqì), 膽量 (zh), 胆量 (zh) (dǎnliàng)

• Czech: odvaha (cs) f, kuráž f, statečnost f
• Danish: mod (da) n, tapperhed (da) c
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: moed (nl) m, dapperheid (nl) f
• Esperanto: kuraĝo
• Estonian: julgus, vaprus (et)
• Faroese: dirvi n, mót n, áræði n, treysti n
• Finnish: rohkeus (fi), urheus (fi), urhoollisuus (fi)
• French: courage (fr) m
• Friulian: please add this translation if you can
• Galician: coraxe f
• Georgian: გულადობა (guladoba), მამაცობა (mamacoba), ვაჟკაცობა (važḳacoba)
• German: Courage (de) f, Mut (de) m, Tapferkeit (de) f
• Greek: κουράγιο (el) n (kourágio), θάρρος (el) n (thárros), γενναιότητα (el) f (gennaiótita), ανδρεία (el) f (andreía)

  Ancient Greek: θάρσος n (thársos)

• Guaraní: py'aguasu
• Gujarati: હિંમત m (himmata)
• Hawaiian: koa
• Hebrew: אומץ‎‎ (he) m (ometz)
• Hindi: साहस (hi) (sāhas), हौसला (hi) m (hauslā), हिम्मत (hi) f (himmat)
• Hungarian: bátorság (hu)
• Icelandic: hugrekki (is) f, n, kjarkur (is) m
• Ido: kurajo (io)
• Igbo: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: keberanian (id)
• Interlingua: corage
• Interlingue: corage
• Irish: misneach (ga) m, sprid (ga) f
• Italian: coraggio (it) m
• Japanese: 勇気 (ja) (ゆうき, yūki), 度胸 (どきょう, dokyō)
• Javanese: wani, kawenan
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: батылдық (kk) (batıldıq), аужарлық (awjarlıq)
• Khmer: សេចក្ដីក្លាហាន (səckdəy klaa haan)
• Korean: 용기 (ko) (yonggi) (勇氣 (ko))
• Kurdish:

  Kurmanji: wêrekî (ku) f, bistehî (ku) f, cesaret (ku) f, curet (ku) f, mêranî (ku) f

• Kyrgyz: кайрат (ky) (kayrat), кайраттуулук (ky) (kayrattuuluk), жүрөктүүлүк (ky) (cüröktüülük)
• Lao: ເສົາຣະຍະ (sao ra nya), ຄວາມກ້າຫານ (khuām kā hān)
• Latin: fortitudo (la) f, virtus (la) f, animus (la) m, audentia f
• Latvian: drosme
• Lithuanian: drąsa (lt)
• Luganda: please add this translation if you can
• Luxembourgish: Mutt m, Courage m
• Macedonian: храброст f (hrabrost), смелост f (smelost)
• Malay: keberanian
• Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
• Maltese: kuraġġ
• Maori: hautoa, māia, toa (mi)
• Marathi: धाड़सी (dhāड़sī)
• Mirandese: coraige
• Mongolian: эр зориг (er zorig)
• Nepali: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mot (no) n, tapperhet m

• Novial: please add this translation if you can
• Occitan: coratge (oc) m
• Oriya: please add this translation if you can
• Ossetian: please add this translation if you can
• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: شهامت‎‎ (fa) (šahâmat), جرات‎‎ (fa) (jorât), جسارت‎‎ (fa) (jasârat), شجاعت‎‎ (fa) (šajâ'at)
• Polish: odwaga (pl) f, męstwo (pl) n, śmiałość (pl) f
• Portuguese: coragem (pt) f, valentia (pt) f
• Romanian: curaj (ro) n
• Russian: сме́лость (ru) f (smélostʹ), хра́брость (ru) f (xrábrostʹ), отва́га (ru) f (otvága), му́жество (ru) n (múžestvo)
• Scottish Gaelic: tapachd f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: хра́бро̄ст f, сме̏ло̄ст f

  Roman: hrábrōst (sh) f, smȅlōst f

• Sicilian: curaggiu (scn) m
• Sinhalese: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: odvaha f
• Slovene: pogum (sl) m, hrabrost f
• Spanish: coraje (es) m, valor (es) m, valentía (es) f
• Swahili: ujasiri (sw)
• Swedish: mod (sv) n, tapperhet (sv) c
• Tagalog: tapang, katapangan, lakas ng loob (tl)
• Tajik: ҷасурӣ (jasurī), далерӣ (tg) (dalerī), диловарӣ (dilovarī), ҷуръат (jurʾat), ҷасорат (jasorat)
• Tamil: தைரியம் (ta) (tairiyam)
• Telugu: ధైర్యము (te) (dhairyamu)
• Thai: ความกล้า (th) (kwaam glâa)
• Tibetan: སྙིང་སྟོབས (snying stobs)
• Turkish: cesaret (tr), yüreklilik (tr)
• Turkmen: batyrlyk (tk), mertlik, ýüreklilik
• Tuvan: эрес дидим чорук (äräs dïdïm čoruk)
• Ukrainian: сміли́вість (uk) f (smilývistʹ), хоро́брість f (xoróbristʹ), му́жність f (múžnistʹ), відва́га f (vidváha)
• Urdu: ساہس‎‎ (sāhas)
• Uyghur: please add this translation if you can
• Uzbek: botirlik (uz), jasurlik (uz), mardlik (uz)
• Vietnamese: can đảm (vi)
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can
• Walloon: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: hyfdra (cy) m
• West Frisian: moed
• Yiddish: מוט‎‎ m (mut)
• Zulu: isibindi (zu) class 7/8

ability to do frightening things

• Armenian: խիզախություն (hy) (xizaxutʿyun)
• Bulgarian: мъ́жество (bg) n (mǎ́žestvo), реши́телност (bg) f (rešítelnost)
• Catalan: coratge (ca) m
• Danish: mod (da) n
• Dutch: moed (nl) m
• French: courage (fr) m
• German: Mut (de) m
• Greek: θάρρος (el) n (thárros)

  Ancient Greek: θάρσος n (thársos)

• Khmer: សេចក្ដីក្លាហាន (səckdəy klaa haan)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: پاڵه‌وانی‎‎ (pALawAnee)

• Maore Comorian: bari class 5
• Maori: hautoa, māia, toa (mi)
• Marathi: धाडस (dhāḍas)
• Mirandese: coraige f, oudácia f
• Portuguese: coragem (pt) f, audácia (pt) f
• Russian: му́жество (ru) n (múžestvo), реши́тельность (ru) f (rešítelʹnostʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: tapachd f
• Spanish: valor (es) m, valentía (es) f
• Swahili: udjasiri class 11
• Tagalog: katapangan, lakas ng loob (tl)
• Zulu: isibindi (zu) class 7/8

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Arabic: ^{(please verify)} شَجَاع‎‎ (ar) (šajāʿ)
• Estonian: ^{(please verify)} vaprust
• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 용기 (ko) (yonggi)

• Norwegian: ^{(please verify)} mot (no) n
• Scottish Gaelic: ^{(please verify)} cridhe m, ^{(please verify)} misneachd f, ^{(please verify)} gaisgeachd f, ^{(please verify)} meanmna m, ^{(please verify)} smior m, ^{(please verify)} smioralas m

Verb

courage (third-person singular simple present courages, present participle couraging, simple past and past participle couraged)

1. (obsolete) To encourage. [15^th-17^thc.]
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter x, in Le Morte Darthur, book XIX:

     And wete yow wel sayd kynge Arthur vnto Vrres syster I shalle begynne to handle hym and serche vnto my power not presumyng vpon me that I am soo worthy to hele youre sone by my dedes / but I wille courage other men of worshyp to doo as I wylle doo

   • 1530, William Tyndale, "An Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue":

     Paul writeth unto Timothy, to instruct him, to teach him, to exhort, to courage him, to stir him up,

See also

• fearlessness
• bield

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French

Etymology

cœur +‎ -age or Middle French corage, from Old French corage, from Vulgar Latin *coraticum, from Latin cor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ku.ʁaʒ/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

courage m (plural courages)

1. courage

   Synonym: bravoure

Derived terms

• courageux
  • courageusement
• encourager
  • encouragement

Descendants

• → Alemannic German: Karäschi
• → Romanian: curaj

Interjection

courage !

1. Chin up! Keep going!

Usage notes

"bon courage !" has a slightly different meaning: "good luck!".

Further reading

• “courage” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).