couché

See also: couche

English

This shield is displayed couché.

Etymology

Borrowed from French couché, past participle of coucher (“to lay, to lay down”). Doublet of couchant and collocate.

Adjective

couché (not comparable)

1. (heraldry) Inclined at an angle.
   • 1866, The Herald and Genealogist, page 77:

     Azure, semé of tratti or billets couché or, two lions passant in pale of the same.

   • 1881, Robert Riddle Stodart, Scottish Arms: Being a Collection of Armorial Bearings, A.D. 1370-1678, Reproduced in Fascimile from Contemporary Manuscripts, page 11:

     3rd, to sinister—on a shield couché a lion rampant within a bordure charged with eight roses, behind the shield a pastoral staff in pale, for Bishop Columba de Dunbar, being his arms and "baculum pastorale." […] Sir David Dunbar of Cockburn, said to be a son or grandson of George, tenth Earl. Seal, 12th December 1452,—on a shield couché, a lion rampant within a bordure charged with eight roses or stars; […]

   • 1896, John Woodward, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 114:

     Argent, semé of billets couches azure, a lion rampant gules, crowned or, Lordship of GEROLDSECK.

   • 1909, James Balfour Paul, The Scots Peerage: Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; Containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of that Kingdom, page 519:

     Andrew, Lord Avandale, bore on his seal a shield couché quartered : 1st , a lion rampant within a royal tressure  […]

   • 1916, Francis Pierrepont Barnard, The Casting-counter and the Counting-board: A Chapter in the History of Numismatics and Early Arithmetic, page 123:

     A heater - shield of Savoy (Gules, a cross argent) couché, with helm, mantling, and crest of a lion's head between two wings;

2. (heraldry, of a chevron) Couched: issuing from the side of the shield rather than the bottom or top.

   A chevron couché is one which emerges from one side of the escutcheon and has its apex on the opposite side, or at the fess point.

   • 1896, John Woodward, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 148:

     Gules, a chevron couché (or issuant from the dexter flank) argent, is the coat of MARSCHALCK. (Plate VII., fig. 5.) Gules , a chevron reversed argent, is the coat of the Bavarian Barons RUMLINGEN DE BERG; and of […]

Further reading

• “couché”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Participle

couché (feminine couchée, masculine plural couchés, feminine plural couchées)

1. past participle of coucher

Adjective

couché (plural couchés)

1. in bed
2. lying

Derived terms

• développé couché

Further reading

• “couché”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Louisiana Creole

Etymology

From French coucher (“to sleep”), compare Haitian Creole kouche.

Verb

couché

1. to sleep

References

• Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales