coinage

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English coinage, also cunage and kuinage,^[2] borrowed from Old French coignaige, also coignage and coigniage,^[3][4][5][6] formed from coignier (“to coin, mint”) and -age.^[3][4][5][6] Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com name Middle French coignaige.^[7][8] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1302, for coinage, the right to coin money, the mint, the fee for stamping coins and the privilege of stamping tin blocks in Cornwall and Devon.^[9] The French verb comes from coing (“a wedge; stamp; piece of money”), from Latin cuneus (“wedge”), the source of coin.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of coining money, and the right to coin it: about 1380, in Sir Ferumbras.^[3][5] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century, but with the sense "currency, coined money".^[4]

Semantic evolution

The OED and Etymonline order the first two senses differently: the OED has the act of coining from about 1380 and coins collectively from 1467,^[3] while Etymonline dates "currency" to the late 14th century and the act of coining to the early 15th.^[4] The official stamping of blocks of tin, once a privilege of certain towns in Cornwall and Devon, is recorded from 1495.^[3] Hamlet's "the very coinage of your brain" (1604) gave the sense of something invented,^[3][10] which Barnhart dates to 1602;^[5] Johnson (1755) glossed this use "forgery; invention".^[10] The deliberate formation of a new word is recorded from 1693, in Dryden,^[3][4] and the word was often used disparagingly of coined words, in contrast with current ones.^[3] From before 1839 it could mean any currency, also figuratively.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – the act of coining money; the right of coining.^[3][5]
• 1467 – coins collectively; a system of coins, a currency.^[3]
• 1495 – the official stamping of blocks of tin.^[3]
• 1604 – something made up or invented.^[3]
• 1693 – the deliberate formation of a new word.^[3][4]
• before 1839 – any currency or medium of exchange, also figurative.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or process of making coins; the right to make them.^{[11][7][12][3]}
2. Coins collectively; a system of coins in use, a country's currency.^[11][7][12]
3. The invention of new words or phrases: a term of recent coinage.^[11][7][12]
4. A newly invented word or phrase; a neologism.^[11][12][13]
5. (historical) The official stamping of blocks of tin in Cornwall and Devon.^[3][14][7]

Word family

• miscoinage
• noncoinage
• recoinage
• free coinage

Related words

• coin

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press