coupe sombre

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French

Etymology

From woodcutting; the idea being that the forest is still dense and dark, because it was only lightly felled.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kup sɔ̃bʁ/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

coupe sombre f (plural coupes sombres)

  1. (forestry) light felling, thinning of the trees
  2. (sometimes proscribed, figuratively, chiefly in the plural) drastic cuts
    faire des coupes sombres dans quelque choseto make drastic cuts, to make swingeing cuts, to make substantial cutbacks

Usage notes

  • This idiom is often misunderstood to mean "heavy felling" (for which coupe claire would be the right term), whence the figurative sense.

See also