Where does “couple” come from?
Couple comes from Middle English couple, from Old French couple, from Latin copula meaning "bond" or "tie," derived from Latin com- and apere.
couple (English): Two partners in a romantic or sexual...
Definitions
- Two partners in a romantic or sexual...
Ancestry of “couple”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | couple | A couple; two people joined by a marital union or... |
| 2 | Old French | couple | couple; sexual liaison |
| 3 | Vulgar Latin | copla | — |
| 4 | Latin | cōpula | a bond, tie, band or other connecting item |
| 5 | Latin | coapula | — |
| 6 | Latin | apio | dative singular of apium; ablative singular of... |
| 7 | Latin | apium | parsley; celery; genitive plural of apis |
| 8 | Latin | Apis | A seaport town of Egypt situated at the borders with Marmarica |
| 9 | Ancient Greek | Ἄπις | — |
| 10 | Coptic | ϩⲁⲡⲉ | the Apis bull, a bull worshipped as a herald of the gods (first Ptah, then Osiris, then Atum) |
| 11 | Egyptian | ḥp | the god Apis |