Culrage

/ˈkʌlrɪdʒ/ noun

Definition

Archaic term for courage or bravery, derived from Old French 'corage' with a Latin root.

Etymology

From Old French 'corage' (courage) with a 'cul-' prefix of uncertain origin, possibly dialectal variation. The root traces to Latin 'cor' meaning heart, as courage was believed to originate from the heart rather than the brain. The spelling variation emerged in Middle English before standardization.

Kelly Says

This forgotten word shows how languages are constantly pruning less-used variants—we eventually settled on 'courage' and dropped 'culrage' entirely, but it survived in some dialects for centuries, proving that standardization is relatively recent!

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