In heraldry, cut off or truncated; appearing to be severed or having the edges cut.
From French 'coupé,' the past participle of 'couper' meaning 'to cut.' In heraldic terminology, this describes how animals or objects in coats of arms are depicted as cut off at the edges, particularly at the edge of the shield.
Heraldry is essentially a graphic design system that emerged in the 12th century, and terms like 'couped' show how specialized this visual language became—a 'couped lion' looks completely different from a regular lion head in heraldry, and only practitioners and nobility could read these subtle distinctions.
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