courage

Etymology

From Middle English corage, from Old French corage (French courage), from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor (“heart”). Distantly related to cardiac (“of the heart”), which is from Greek, but from the same Proto-Indo-European root. Displaced Middle English elne, ellen, from Old English ellen (“courage, valor”).

noun

1. The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate.
   It takes a lot of courage to be successful in business.
2. The ability to overcome one's fear, do or live things which one finds frightening.
   He plucked up the courage to tell her how he felt.
3. The ability to maintain one's will or intent despite either the experience of fear, frailty, or frustration; or the occurrence of adversity, difficulty, defeat or reversal. Moral fortitude.
   Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. 1942, C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
   Courage isn't having the strength to go on - it is going on when you don't have strength. 1993, Stanley P. Cornils, The Mourning After: How to Manage Grief Wisely
   2008, Maya Angelou, address for the 2008 Cornell University commencement Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.
   I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again. 2008, Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Screenplay

verb

1. (obsolete) To encourage.
2. 1530, William Tyndale, An Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue: