Today's Mariners game featured an epic late inning failure resulting in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at the last gasp. But no, that's not the pet peeve. The final blow in such an epic defeat is often referred to by many of my fellow Americans (especially, it seems, radio commentators) as the "coop de grah" intended to mean of course, the coup de grâce (/ˌkuːdə ˈɡrɑːs/). The variation on the first word "coup" is substantial - it's occasionally pronounced correctly, but just as often pronounced coop. The main failure, though is in the pronunciation of grâce as "grah". As the Wikipedia entry points out, this is known as hyperforeignism, an interesting concept. Wikipedia continues:
Mardi Gras, means, of course, Fat Tuesday, but the connection (or lack thereof) between that and grâce is lost on most people. There is one further option Wikipedia misses - the "coop de grah" mentioned above, which translated becomes "cup of fat". Nice. I hate to think what sport might have the Coupe de Gras as the prize...
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