golpe

Meaning

(masculine) hit, blow, strike
(masculine) punch, jab
(masculine) knock (door)
(masculine) bump, bang, bash (sound of a blow or dull impact)
(masculine) crowd, multitude (of people)
(masculine) gush (of water), gust (of wind)
(masculine) blast (of music)
(masculine) heartbeat
(masculine) beat; rhythm
(masculine) bunch of seedlings (in one hole)
(masculine) hole (for planting seedlings)
(masculine) shot, stroke
(figuratively,masculine) stroke (heat, of luck, of genius, etc.)
(masculine) surprise
(masculine) heist, job
(masculine) swing
(abbreviation,alt-of,ellipsis,masculine) Ellipsis of golpe de estado (“coup d'état”).

Frequency

Hyphenated as

gol‧pe

Gender

♂️ Masculine

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɡolpe/

Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish colpe, from Late Latin colpus (attested in Salic Law and the Reichenau Glosses), syncopation of *colŭpus, alteration of Latin colaphus, from Ancient Greek κόλαφος (kólaphos). Cognate with English coup. Doublet of colpo. While some linguists suggest it may possibly be a Gallicism in Hispano-Romance due to its unusual phonetic evolution (e.g. lack of diphtongization of the 'o', final '-e', etc.), upon closer inspection, this is probably not the case. The fact that the Latin word was originally a loanword from Greek, subject to certain sound shifts affecting the short vowels in open syllables, likely had an impact on its development in Romance. As for the final '-e' instead of an '-o' in an expected *golpo, it may be because the Spanish word was actually a derivative of the Old Spanish verb golpar (“to wound, hurt”), colpar, from a related Vulgar Latin verb *colaphāre (a Late or Vulgar Latin derivation culpatores, referring to a type of gladiator, was attested in a gloss, for *colaphatores, following syncopation); compare French couper and Old Galician-Portuguese golpar, golbar.