— couponless , adj.
/kooh"pon, kyooh"-/ , n.
1. a portion of a certificate, ticket, label, advertisement, or the like, set off from the main body by dotted lines or the like to emphasize its separability, entitling the holder to something, as a gift or discount, or for use as an order blank, a contest entry form, etc.
2. a separate certificate, ticket, etc., for the same purpose.
3. one of a number of small detachable certificates calling for periodic interest payments on a bearer bond. Cf. coupon bond .
4. Metall. a sample of metal or metalwork submitted to a customer or testing agency for approval.
[ 1815-25; colpon piece cut off, equiv. to colp ( er ) to cut (see COPE 1 ) + -on n. suffix ]
Pronunciation . COUPON, related to cope and coup, is of French origin. It has developed an American pronunciation variant /kyooh"pon/ with an unhistorical y -sound not justified by the spelling. This pronunciation is used by educated speakers and is well-established as perfectly standard, although it is sometimes criticized. Its development may have been encouraged by analogy with words like curious, cupid, and cute, where c is followed by a "long u " and the /y/ is mandatory.