coffer

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cofre, also coffre,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French cofre, also coffre,^{[3][2][5][6][7]} from Latin cophinus (“basket”),^{[3][5][6][8][7]} from Ancient Greek κόφινος (kóphinos, “basket”),^[3][7][9] which Klein calls a word of foreign origin and Etymonline, under coffin, a word of uncertain origin.^[4][6] The American Heritage Dictionary explains the Old French form as an alteration of an unrecorded *cofne,^[8] and the OED compares the same change in Latin ordinem, which gave French ordre.^[3] Johnson's derivation from "Saxon" cofre is only of historical interest.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A box or chest, especially for valuables: about 1250 in Barnhart,^[11][5] the mid-13th century in Etymonline.^[6] The MED's first quotation is from before 1275, and the OED's from about 1300, in the South English Legendary's life of Becket.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The OED compares the medieval Latin use of the source word in de cofinis id est scriniis, where a basket has become a case or chest.^[3] In Middle English a cofre could hold anything of value, from armour and books to spices and relics, and a comin cofre was the strongbox of a guild or town.^[2] The plural came to mean a treasury and then funds, from 1377 in Piers Plowman,^[3][6] and Johnson (1755) still gave "treasure" as a separate sense.^[10] The word was also used for a coffin (about 1381 to 1555, first in Chaucer) and for an ark, including Noah's and Moses's (before 1400 to 1711),^[3][12] and Trevisa's coffer of the heart (1398) was the pericardium.^[3] Later technical senses include the sunk panel of a ceiling (1664, in Evelyn), a trough for breaking tin ore (1671), a filled space in a wall (1715) and a hollow lodgment across a dry moat (1728–55).^[3][10] Merriam-Webster adds the chamber of a canal lock, a caisson and a cofferdam.^[7] In English dialects a coffer was a chest for clothes or for corn, especially in a stable, and in Derbyshire mining the verb meant to seal a shaft against leaks with clay.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – a box or chest for valuables.^[5] The MED's first quotation is from before 1275, the OED's from about 1300.^[2][3]
• 1377 – plural, a treasury, funds.^[3]
• c. 1381 – a coffin (obsolete by 1555).^[3]
• c. 1394 – verb, to lay up in a coffer.^[3]
• before 1400 – an ark (obsolete by 1711).^[3]
• 1664 – a sunk ornamental panel in a ceiling.^[3]
• 1671 – a trough in which tin ore is broken.^[3]
• 1881 – a plank frame used in mining; verb, to secure a mine shaft.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strong chest or box for money or valuables.^[14][7][3]
2. (usually plural) The funds or treasury of a person or an institution: The new tax refilled the city's coffers.^[14][7][3]
3. An ornamental sunken panel in a ceiling or dome.^[14][7][3]
4. A watertight chamber; a caisson or cofferdam.^[14][7]
5. (obsolete, 1381–1555) A coffin.^[3][15]
6. (obsolete, 1400–1711) An ark.^[3][12]

Verb

1. (archaic) To store in a coffer; to hoard.^[7][3][14]
2. To decorate a ceiling or dome with sunken panels.^[14][7][15]
3. (mining) To secure a shaft from leaking by ramming clay behind the masonry or timbering.^[7][13][3]

Word family

• cofferlike
• cofferdam
• coffered
• coffering

Related words

• coffin

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press