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小词详解 | coup

田间小站 田间小站 2022-09-30

coup 英 [kuː] 美 [kuː]
TEM8 GRE

外刊例句

  • “It was the intelligence coup of the century,” crowed a CIA report. “Foreign governments were paying good money…for the privilege of having their most secret communications read.”
    “这是本世纪情报工作非常难得的成就,”美国中央情报局的报告中洋洋自得地写道,“外国政府花重金……把自己最机密的通信开放给他人。”
    ——《经济学人》
  • Throughout the weekend, most of the conversations I had were with friends and family debating the probability of a coup.
    整个周末,我和亲朋的大部分对话都是在讨论政变的可能性。
    ——《纽约时报》

基本释义

[noun] a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government
[名词] 政变


深入解读

Coup 一词比较简单好记,与常见的 soup (汤、羹)和 group (组、群、批、簇)结尾相同。该词源自古希腊语 kolaphos (一击、一拳、一巴掌),15世纪经古法语 coup, colp (一击)进入英语,最初也是用来表示“一击”,不过这个含义现已不再流行。

转而到了1852年, coup 开始用作法语  coup d'etat (政变)的简称,也是用来表示“政变”,多指反对派小集团(faction)经过精心策划,以暴力手段突然非法地推翻政府并夺取权力,并通常在军队的支持下得以确保成功,且一般不需要流血,比如:

  • 总统在军事政变中被赶下台。
    The president was
    ousted in a military coup.
  • 我的死敌在一场董事会突变中失去了职位。
    My
    nemesis lost her position in a boardroom coup.

发动政变(to stage/mount a coup)往往不是件容易的事,所以经常有失败或流产的政变(a failed coup or an abortive coup),也可以说成是政变未遂(an attempted coup)。从其困难和结果难料的角度出发, coup 还用来表示“突然而巧妙的行动、计划或策略”或者说“成功之举、意想不到的成功”,常意味着因非常难办而特别了不起,比如:

  • 要不是他们从对手那儿抢到了合同,他们早就破产了。这对他们来说真是成功的一着。
    They'd have gone bust if they hadn't
    snagged that contract from their rivals. It was quite a coup for them.
  • 我说服了沉默内向的第一夫人来参加聚会,实属意外之得。
    I got the
    reticent and reserved first lady to come to a party, which was something of a coup.

此外,在美国历史中, coup 还指“棒击”,即北美印第安人打仗时棒击敌人后继续前进而不将其打死,以示勇敢。

最后值得注意的是, coup 一词末尾的字母 p 不发音,不要误将其读作 [kuːp]  。

名著用例
"The coup has been smooth and virtually silent," said Lupin. "The official version of Scrimgeour's murder is that he resigned; he has been replaced by Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse."
“政变很平稳,几乎无声无息,”卢平说,“斯克林杰遇害的官方说法是他辞职了,接替他的是皮尔斯·辛克尼斯,被施了夺魂咒。”
出自英国作家J·K·罗琳的奇幻小说《哈利·波特》系列的第七本《哈利·波特与死亡圣器》(Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)。

同近义词

  • overthrow: a removal from power; a defeat or downfall
  • takeover: an act of assuming control of something, especially the buying out of one company by another
  • deposition: the action of deposing someone, especially a monarch

往期回顾
小词详解 | sordid
小词详解 | calibre
小词详解 | eligible

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