Etymologically
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coil

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Pronunciation

coil1 spiral, loop

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as borrowed from Middle French coillir (“to gather, collect, pick”),[2][3][4][5][6][7] now cueillir,[8][6] inherited from Latin colligō (“to gather together”),[3][2][5][9] the source of collect and, through French, of cull.[9][7] The Latin verb is formed from com- (“together”) and legō (“to gather”), from Proto-Indo-European *leg- (“to collect, gather”).[3] The OED notes that the verb and the noun are not traced beyond 1611, though as sailors' words they were probably spoken much earlier, and that Littré records the French verb as a nautical term for laying a rope in rings; it compares colher, used of coiling a cable.[8][5] The American Heritage Dictionary calls the French origin probable,[10] and Dictionary.com takes the word as perhaps a variant of cull.[11] The Anglo-Norman verb, recorded from the early 12th century, already meant to gather together and to gather up.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To lay up a rope or cable in rings: the first record is in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary (1611).[8][2][3] The Shorter Oxford dates the verb to the early 16th century,[5][13] and a much older verb coil, to select or choose, borrowed from the same French verb, is recorded from 1399 to 1721.[8]

Semantic evolution

Ayto suggests that the general French sense "to gather" was narrowed in nautical use to gathering up a rope in loops.[9] The noun, a length of rope or cable laid in rings, is recorded from 1627, in John Smith's Sea Grammar,[8][2] and the general sense of a series of rings into which something pliant is wound from 1661, in Boyle.[8][3][4] From 1664 the verb was also used of twisting something, or oneself, into a spiral,[8] and since 1798, in Coleridge, of a snake or the like forming coils.[8][3] The 19th century added technical senses: a spiral of pipes (1823), a wire carrying an electric current (1849), and in gun-making a bar of iron wound into a tube (1859).[8][3] In the 20th century a coil was also a roll of postage stamps (1908), a contraceptive device placed in the womb (1931) and a mosquito coil (1963).[8] In Oxfordshire and East Anglia a coil of teal was a flock of them, and in Scotland the verb meant to ensnare;[14] northern dialects also had coil for a haycock, of uncertain origin, perhaps the same French verb.[8][14][15] In Rastafarian and Caribbean slang a coil is money.[16]

Timeline

  • 1399 – coil, to select (obsolete by 1721).[8]
  • 1611 – to lay up a rope in rings.[8][2]
  • 1627 – noun, a length of rope laid in rings.[8][2]
  • 1661 – a series of rings or spirals.[8][4]
  • 1664 – reflexive, to twist oneself into a coil.[8]
  • 1798 – intransitive, to form coils.[8][3]
  • 1805 – a single turn of a coiled thing, especially of a snake.[8]
  • 1849 – a wire coil carrying an electric current.[8][3]
  • 1908 – a roll of postage stamps.[8]
  • 1931 – an intrauterine contraceptive device.[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A series of loops or a spiral into which something long and flexible is wound: a coil of garden hose.
  2. A single turn of such a series, especially of a snake.
  3. A wire wound in a spiral to carry an electric current and produce inductance or a magnetic field, as in an ignition system.
  4. A spiral of pipes, as in a heater or condenser.
  5. An intrauterine device.
  6. A roll of postage stamps for a vending machine.

Verb

  1. To wind something into loops or a spiral: The deckhand coiled the line neatly on the dock.
  2. To form loops, or to move in a winding course: The path coiled up the hillside.
  3. To wrap around something in coils.

Word family

  • coiler
  • uncoil
  • coilable
  • supercoil

coil2 turmoil, fuss

Etymology

The noun meaning turmoil is of unknown origin.[8][4][5][6][13] The OED thinks it was probably a colloquial or even slang word that rose into literary use, like pother, rumpus and hubbub, and rejects suggested Gaelic sources.[8] Weekley and Klein derived it from Old French acueil (“encounter, collision”), from acueillir, with the loss of the first vowel;[15][7] Johnson had compared German.[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

Noisy disturbance, turmoil: 1567, in Drant's translation of Horace.[8][4]

Semantic evolution

The word spread in the late 16th century to a confused din of things (1582) and to fuss or ado (1599);[8] to keep a coil, to make a fuss, is recorded from 1568.[8] Shakespeare used it several times, and Johnson (1755) quoted The Tempest for "tumult; turmoil; bustle".[17] Hamlet's "this mortal coil" (1604), the turmoil of mortal life, became a current phrase;[8][5][4] Hoad and Weekley note that the word is now archaic except in that phrase.[6][15] In Scots and northern English dialect it was still used for a stir or fuss in the 19th century.[14]

Timeline

  • 1567 – noisy disturbance, turmoil.[8][4]
  • 1568 – to keep a coil, to make a fuss.[8]
  • 1582 – a confused noise of things.[8]
  • 1599 – fuss, ado.[8]
  • 1604 – mortal coil, in Shakespeare's Hamlet.[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (archaic) A noisy disturbance; turmoil or fuss.
  2. this mortal coil: the troubles of mortal life, or life itself.

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ 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 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  13. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ a b c 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)
  15. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.