different between courage vs spunk

English

Etymology

From Middle English corage, from Old French corage (French courage), from Vulgar Latin *cor?ticum, from Latin cor (“heart”). Distantly related to cardiac (“of the heart”), which is from Greek, but from the same Proto-Indo-European root. Displaced Middle English elne, ellen, from Old English ellen (“courage, valor”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k???d?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?k???d?/, /?k???d?/
  • (accents without the "Hurry-furry" merger)
  • (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.

2. The ability to overcome one's fear, do or live things which one finds frightening.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Aristotle, Rhetoric, 1.9.8

     ...courage is the thing by which they are able to take useful actions while amidst hazards...
3. The ability to maintain one's will or intent despite either the experience of fear, frailty, or frustration; or the occurrence of adversity, difficulty, defeat or reversal.
   • 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

     Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

   • 1942, C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

     “Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.”

   • 2008, Maya Angelou, address for the 2008 Cornell University commencement

     Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:courage

Derived terms

Related terms

• cardiac

Translations

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.]
   • 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

French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ku.?a?/

Noun

courage m (plural courages)

1. courage

   Synonym: bravoure

Derived terms

• bon courage
• courageux
  • courageusement
• décourager
  • décourageant
  • découragement
• encourager
  • encourageant
  • encouragement
• prendre son courage à deux mains

Descendants

• ? Bulgarian: ????? (kuraž)
• ? Macedonian: ????? (kuraž)
• ? Romanian: curaj
• ? Russian: ????? (kuraž)

Interjection

courage !

1. chin up! keep going! take heart!

Usage notes

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

Further reading

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

English

Etymology

1530, blend of spark +? funk (obsolete, “spark”). Also, merging with spunck, 1582, ultimately from Old Irish sponc, from Latin spongia (“sponge”).

Funk (“spark, touchwood”) is from Middle English funke, fonke (“spark”), from Old English *funce (“spark”), *fanca, from Proto-Germanic *funkô, *fankô (“spark”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peng-, *(s)pheng- (“to shine”), and is akin to Middle Low German funke, fanke (“spark”), Middle Dutch vonke (“spark”), Old High German funcho, funko (“spark”), German Funke (“spark”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp??k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Noun

spunk (usually uncountable, plural spunks)

1. (countable, obsolete) A spark.
2. (uncountable) Touchwood; tinder.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II.5:

     Spunk, or Touch-wood prepared, might perhaps make it Russet: and some, as Beringuccio affirmeth, have promised to make it Red.

   • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, XXII:

     A piece of Touch-wood (which is a kind of Jews-ear, or Mushrom, growing here in England also, on several sorts of Trees, such as Elders, Maples, Willows, &c. and is commonly call'd by the name of Spunk […]).

3. (countable, chiefly Scotland, obsolete) A piece of tinder, sometimes impregnated with sulphur; a match.
   • 1829, Society for Relief of the Destitute Sick (Edinburgh), Report, page 7,

     At present, her only means of procuring subsistence for herself and children, is by making spunks or matches, which, either she or her eldest child, a girl about six years of age, sells from door to door.

   • 1843, John Wilson, John Gibson Lockhart, William Maginn, James Hogg, The Noctes Ambrosianæ of “Blackwood”, Volume IV, page 396,

     “Spunks — spunks — spunks — who will buy my spunks?” — cried an errant voice with a beseeching earnestness […] .

4. (uncountable) Courage; spirit; mettle; determination.
   • 1920 August, Edward Leonard, Old Zeke?s Mule, Boys? Life, 55,

     “I reckon I?m as good as a mule,” he declared. “Maria knows what that desert is as well as we do, but she?s got more spunk than either of us. I'm not going to let any mule show more spunk than me.”

   • 1991, Lindsey Hanks, (copyright Linda Chesnutt, Georgia Pierce), Long Texas Night, Zebra Books, US, page 26,

     “You've got spunk, missy, I?ll have to say that for you. Maybe with your spunk and my good looks we can get this place in shape again.”

     It was Sarah?s turn to laugh.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:spunk.
5. (countable, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, slang) An attractive person (normally male).

   Synonyms: Adonis, beefcake, hunk

   • 2005, Sue Austin, Women?s Aggressive Fantasies: A Post-Jungian Exploration of Self-Hatred, Love and Agency, Routledge, UK, page 166,

     We are welcomed by 20 year old spunks, as we make a last valiant attempt with our bodies - gasp, gasp - and try to get back in shape.

6. (uncountable, chiefly Britain, vulgar, slang) Semen.
   • 2007, Debra Hyde, Kidnapped, Violet Blue (editor), Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women, 2010, ReadHowYouWant, page 188,

     It was runny stuff and, as she felt Brain loosen his hold on the drawstrings, Cackle's spunk dripped onto the shelf of her chin.

Derived terms

• spunky

Translations

Verb

spunk (third-person singular simple present spunks, present participle spunking, simple past and past participle spunked)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To catch fire; flame up.
2. (slang, vulgar) To ejaculate.

Anagrams

• punks