Coupe (pronounced koop
or koo-pey (the latter used even if
spelled without the “é”)).
(1) A
closed, two-door car, sometimes on a shorter wheelbase than the four-door
version on which they’re based.
(2) A
four-door car with a lower or more elongated, sloping roofline than the model
on which it’s based.
(3) An ice
cream or sherbet mixed or topped with fruit, liqueur, whipped cream etc.
(4) A
glass container for serving such a dessert, usually having a stem and a wide,
deep bowl (similar in shape but usually larger than a champagne coupe).
(5) As champagne
coupe, a shallow, broad-bowled saucer shaped stemmed glass also often used for
cocktails because of their greater stability than many a cocktail glasses.
(6) A
short, four-wheeled, horse-drawn, closed carriage, usually with a single seat
for two passengers and an outside seat for the driver.
(7) The
end compartment in a European diligence or railroad car with seats on one side
only.
(8) In
commercial logging, an area of a forest or plantation where harvesting of wood
is planned or has taken place.
(9) In
military use, as coupe gorge (a borrowing from French (literally “cut-throat”),
any position affording such advantage to an attacking formation that the troops
occupying it must either surrender or be “cut to pieces”.
(10) In
various sports, a cup awarded as a prize.
(11) A
hairstyle (always pronounced coop)
which typically features shorter sides and back with longer hair on top.
1825–1835:
From the French coupé (low, short, four-wheeled, close carriage without the
front seat, carrying two inside, with an outside seat for the driver (also “front
compartment of a stage coach”)), a shortened form of carrosse coupé (a cut-off or shortened version of the Berlin (from
Berliner) coach, modified to remove the back seat), the past participle of couper (to cut off; to cut in half), the
verbal derivative of coup (blow; stroke); a doublet of cup, hive and keeve,
thus the link with goblets, cups & glasses.
It was first applied to two-door automobiles with enclosed coachwork by
1897 while the Coupe de ville (or Coup de ville) dates from 1931, describing
originally a car with an open driver's position and an enclosed passenger
compartment.
The
earlier senses (wicker basket, tub, cask) date from 1375–1425, from the Middle
English, from the Anglo-French coupe & cope, from the Old French coupe, from the Medieval Latin cōpa (cask), from the Latin cūpa (cask, tub, barrel), the ultimate
source of the modern “cup” (both drink vessels and bras). The Middle English cǒupe was from the Old Saxon kûpa & côpa, from the Old High German chôfa
& chuofa, again from the from the
Medieval Latin cōpa from the Latin cūpa.
It described variously a large wicker basket; a dosser, a pannier; a
basket, pen or enclosure for birds (a coop); a cart or sled equipped with a
wicker basket for carrying manure etc; a barrel or cask for holding liquids. The obvious descendent is the modern coop
(chickens etc). Coupe is a noun; the
noun plural is coupes.
Marie Antoinette and the unrelated champagne coupe.
The “coupe”
hair-style (always pronounced coop)
is one which typically features shorter sides and back with longer hair on top,
the modern interpretations making a distinct contrast between the shorter and
longer sections, the aim being the creation of sharp lines or acute
angles. The longer hair atop can be
styled in various ways (slicked back, textured, or even the messy look of a
JBF. Historically, the coupe hairstyle was
associated with men's cuts but of late it’s become popular with women, attracted
by the versatility, low maintenance and the adaptability to suit different face
shapes, hair types and variegated coloring.
Because outside the profession, there’s no obvious link between “coupe”
and hair-styles, the term “undercut” is often used instead. Unfortunately, despite the often-repeated
story, there seems little to support the claim the wide-mouthed, shallow-bowled
champagne coupe was modelled on one of Marie Antoinette's (1755–1793; Queen
Consort of France 1774-1792) breasts.
Harold Wilson (1916–1995; UK prime minister 1964-1970 & 1974-1976) outside 10 Downing Street with his official car, a Rover 3.5 saloon.
In
automobiles, by the 1960s, the English-speaking world had (more or less) agreed
a coupe was a two door car with a fixed roof and, if based on a sedan, in some
way (a shorter wheelbase or a rakish roof-line) designed put a premium on style
over utility. There were hold-outs among
a few UK manufacturers who insisted there were fixed head coupes (FHC) and drop
head coupes (DHC), the latter described by most others as convertibles or
cabriolets but mostly the term had come to be well-understood. It was thus a surprise when Rover in 1962 displayed
a “four-door coupe”, essentially their 3 Litre sedan with a lower roof-line and
a few “sporty” touches such as a tachometer and a full set of gauges. Powered by a 3.0 litre (183 cubic inch)
straight-six, it had been available as a four-door sedan since 1958 and had
found a niche in that part of the upper middle-class market which valued
smoothness and respectability over the speed and flashiness offered by the
rakish Jaguars but, heavy and under-powered by comparison, even its admirers
remarked on the lethargy of the thing while noting it was fast enough to
over-tax the four-wheel drum brakes. The
engine did however set standards of smoothness which only the Rolls-Royce
straight-sixes and the best of the various straight-eights could match but by
1959, both breeds were all but extinct so the Rover, with its by then archaic
arrangement using overhead inlet and side-mounted exhaust valves had at least
one unmatched virtue to offer.
Although obviously influenced by the then stylish 1955 Chryslers, its
conservative lines appealed to a market segment where such a thing was a virtue
and reflected Rover’s image although it was a company with a history which
included some genuine adventurism, their experimental turbine-engined cars in
the early post-war years producing high performance, something made more
startling by them being mounted in bodies using the same styling cues as the upright
3 Litre. The company however discovered
that whatever the many advantages, they suffered the same problems that would
doom Chrysler’s turbine project, notably their thirst (although turbines do
have a wide tolerance of fuel types) and the high costs of manufacturing
because of the precision required, something hinted at by the Chrysler’s
tachometer reading to 46,000 rpm while the temperature gauge was graduated to 1,700°F
(930°C). While such machinery was
manageable on warships or passenger jets, to sell them to general consumers
would have been too great a risk for any corporation and neither ever appeared
in the showrooms although Chrysler’s research continued until 1979 and Rover
co-developed a turbine race car which proved its speed and durability in
several outings in the Le Mans 24 hour endurance classic.
For the
public however, Rover upgraded the 3 Litre in a way which was less imaginative
but highly successful, purchasing from General Motors (GM) the rights to the
3.5 litre (2.15 cubic inch), all-aluminum V8 which Buick, Oldsmobile &
Pontiac had all used in their new generation of “compact” cars between
1960-1963. For a variety of reasons, GM
abandoned the project (to their later regret) and Rover embarked on their own
development project, modifying the V8 to suit local conditions and the
availability of components. Remarkably,
it would remain in production until 2006, used by several manufacturers as well
as a legion of private ventures in capacity up to 5.0 litres (305 cubic inch)
although megalomaniacs discovered that by using a mix-and-match of
off-the-shelf parts, a displacement of 5.2 litres (318 cubic inch) was
possible. Lighter and more powerful than
the long-serving straight-six, the V8 transformed the 3 Litre although Rover,
with typical English understatement, limited themselves to changing the name to
“3.5 Litre”, solving the potential of any confusion when the V8 was offered in
the smaller 2000 by calling it the “3500”.
Although the factory never released one, privately some 3.5 Coupés have been converted to two-doors and there are even some cabriolets (ie drop head coupes or convertibles).
Although
the new engine couldn’t match the smoothness of the old, the effortless
performance it imparted added to the refinement and fortunately, by the time
the V8 was installed, disk brakes had been fitted and transformed by the additional
power, it became an establishment favorite, used by prime-ministers and Queen
Elizabeth II even long after it had been discontinued. Even by the time the V8 version was released
in 1967, it was in many ways a relic but it managed to offer such a combination
of virtues that its appeal for years transcended its vintage aspects. When the last was produced in 1973, that it
was outdated and had for some time been obsolescent was denied by few but even
many of them would admit it remained a satisfying drive. One intriguing part of the tale was why,
defying the conventions of the time, the low-roof variation of the four-door
was called a coupé (and Rover did use the l'accent
aigu (the acute accent: “é”) to ensure the “traditional pronunciation” was imposed
although the Americans and others sensibly abandoned the practice). The rakish lines, including more steeply
sloped front and rear glass were much admired although the original vision had
been more ambitious still, the original intention being a four-door hardtop
with no central pillar. Strangely,
although the Americas and Germans managed this satisfactorily, a solution
eluded Rover which had to content themselves with a thinner B-pillar.
1955 Chrysler C-300 (top left), 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 Coupé (top right), Rover 3.5 Coupé (bottom left) and Rover 3.5 Saloon (bottom right).
On sale only in the 1955-1956 seasons, the restrained lines of Chrysler’s elegant “Forward Look” range didn’t last long in the US as extravagance overtook Detroit but the influence endured longer in Europe, both the Mercedes-Benz W111 (1961-1971) & W112 Coupé (1962-1967) and the Rover P5 (1958-1967) & P5B (1967-1973) interpreting the shape. The Rover was a tale of two rooflines: the “Establishment” Saloon and the rakish Coupé.
Whether or not Chrysler in the US had noted the Rover P5 Coupé isn't known but in 1971 Plymouth also released a four-door coupe and this one really was a genuine hardtop. Mid-way through the 1970 season, quietly slipped into the range was the "Gran Coupe", based on the Fury II two-door sedan but bundled with a number of otherwise extra-cost options including air conditioning and the then fashionable concealed headlights. What was most obvious however, was the paisley theme, a patterned vinyl roof with matching upholstery, most Gran Coupes finished in a newly created copper tone paint although other colors were available. The Gran Coupe returned for 1971 but the coachwork was the more elegant pillarless hardtop in both two and four-door versions, the latter still known as a coupe. That attracted criticism from those who had come to associate the word exclusively with two-door bodywork and unlike Rover which, with a nod to the etymology of coupé, had cut the P5’s roof-line a little, shamelessly, Plymouth ignored the etymology and invented the un-cut coupe, clearly believing gluing on some paisley vinyl vested sufficient distinction. The factory also imposed some restraint on buyers: although the Gran Coupe was available in a variety of colors, only if the standard interior trim (tan) was chosen would the paisley patterned upholstery be available and, befitting the likely ownership of the full-sized line, the vinyl roof was subdued rather than the swirling psychedelia of the groovy Mod Top’s swirls. In the twenty-first century the “four door coupe” became a thing but although Rover seems to have been the first to apply a “Coupé” badge, the now familiar motifs were seen in some coach-built four-doors during the inter-war years, the big Duesenbergs and Buccialis among the most memorable.
Following Rover: 1971 Plymouth Fury III Gran Coupe (four-door hardtop). There are four door coupes because Plymouth said so.
Rover wasn't unique; one way or another, windows have troubled the
English: (1) the “window tax” imposed on houses during the eighteenth &
nineteenth centuries a constant irritant to many, (2) the squircle (in algebraic geometry "a closed quartic curve having
properties intermediate between those of a square and a circle") windows used
in the early de Havilland Comets found to be a contributing factor in the
catastrophic structural airframe failures which doomed the thing and the reason
why oval windows are used to this day (mathematicians pointing out the Comet’s
original apertures were not “quartic”
as some claim on the basis of them being “a square with rounded corners”, the nerds
noting “quartic” means “an algebraic
equation or function of the fourth degree or a curve describing such an equation
or function” and (3) even by the mid 1970s, Jaguar couldn’t quite get right the
sealing on the frameless windows used on the lovely “two-door” versions (1975-1978) of
the Jaguar & Daimler XJ saloons (which the factory insisted were NOT a
coupé, presumably to differentiate them from the long-serving (1975-1995) but
considerably less lovely XJ-S (later XJS).
Lindsay Lohan with Porsche Panamera 4S four-door coupe (the factory doesn't use the designation but most others seem to), Los Angeles, 2012.
The
etymology of coupe is that it comes from couper (to
cut off) but the original use in the context of horse-drawn coaches referred to
the platform being shortened, not lowered but others have also been inventive,
Cadillac for decades offering the Coupe De Ville (they used also Coupe DeVille)
and usually it was built on exactly the same platform as the Sedan De Ville. So Rover probably felt entitled to cut where
they preferred; in their case it was the roof and in the early twentieth
century, the four-door coupe became a thing, the debut in 2004 of the
Mercedes-Benz CLS influencing other including BMW, Porsche, Volkswagen and
Audi. Whether the moment for the style has
passed will be indicated by whether the current model, the last of which will be
produced in August 2023, will be replaced.
