[porsh] and other British English (was: Coup de grace)

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:25 PM -0500 6/10/04, Sally Donlon wrote:
>
>P.S. I also have always thought "coup de gras" had no pronounced "s"
>on the end.

"coup de gras" wouldn't.  "coup de grace", on the other hand...

>We're so used to pronouncing "Mardi Gras" without that "s" that I
>guess it just
>carries over for us.

But we (sometimes) call the latter "Fat Tuesday".  Do people really
think of the "coup de grace" blow as having some connection with fat?
I'm not trying to be prescriptive, just wondering what the intuitive
connections are.

L