To muster up the courage

[poli]

Examples: It took time for him to muster up the courage to propose marriage.

She mustered up the courage to tell her boss what she thought.

asumir el coraje
agarrar el ánimo?

[aleCcowaN]

1) juntar coraje
2) reunir coraje

3) armarse de valor

4) hacer de tripas corazón

4 implies to conceal one's intense fears
1-2 more the run-of-the-mill fears or shyness
3 an intermediate stage

it may vary with the country

is there any difference of intensity between "muster up the courage" and "pluck up courage"?

[poli]

Thanks AleCoweN.
I don't think there is much difference in meaning between muster up and pluck up, but the uses are regional, I assume pluck up is British. You will not hear it much in the United States.

[aleCcowaN]

Thanks, poli.

Una aclaración: the collocations are "juntar coraje" and "reunir coraje", but I know that in many countries "coraje" is not used as courage but as anger, so I imagine "juntar valor" would be the collocation there.

[poli]

Thanks. I like valor more than coraje. In Caribbean Spanish that I hear a lot, coraje is often used to mean the nerve, or chutzpah (descaro, sin vergüenzura). Example: Tienen el coraje de cobrar $80 para una cosa que no vale ni 5 chavos. It's interesting that it can be anger too.

By the way, now that I think about it, gather up the courage is probably a better term than muster up the courage.

[aleCcowaN]

Well, gather up sounds like juntar and muster up sounds like reunir; in Spanish the second one being a tiny little bit more formal than the first one. It's like one junta cosas and reune voluntades.

About coraje, I think its use as "anger" comes from the meaning you were talking about:

le dieron una medalla por su gran coraje (valor)
tuvo el coraje de decirle que ... (descaro, atrevimiento, desfachatez, tupé)
tuvo el coraje de pedir 80$ por ... (descaro, frescura, desvergüenza)
me da coraje que te diga eso (ira, enojo, rabia)

The last one I heard/read from Mexican sources other than dubbing -which is more neutral-.

[JPablo]

Interesting...

I take that "hacer de tripas corazón" could be said as "to take one’s courage in both hands"...

Greetings...