Obs. Also 4–5 cope, coupe, 5–6 coulpe. [a. OF. coulpe (colpe, culpe, coupe, cope), f. L. culpa fault, blame.
After the Fr. word had regularly become coupe, the l was restored from Latin, and was at length pronounced.]
Guilt, sin, fault, blame.
[1292. Britton, I. xxix. § 3. Par sa coupe ou par sa negligence.]
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 305. And kaires hym to-kirke-ward his coupe to schewe.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 261. Baptisme … which bynymeþ vs þe culpe.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, I vj. Sayeng that she had no culpe of this dede. Ibid. (c. 1489), Blanchardyn, xxii. 74. Thourgh the coulpe of a knyght.
1513. Hen. VIII., in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. App. iii. 6. We do not impute the culp and blame thereof in any person.
1549. Compl. Scot., xvii. 155. The coulpe of our synnis.
1601. Q. Eliz., in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), II. 354. I hope God will not lay their culps to my charge.
