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coroner

Etymology and origin of the English word coroner

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Formation
Borrowing
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman corouner
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin corona
English coroner
English corona

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈkɒ.ɹə.nə(ɹ)/ (UK); /ˈkɔɹ.ə.nɚ/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman corouner (“officer of the crown”),[2][3][4][5] from coroune “crown”,[2][3][6][5] from Latin corona (“crown”).[2][4][6] The officer's Latin title was custos placitorum coronae, “guardian of the crown's pleas”.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An officer of a county or borough charged with maintaining the rights of the crown (1194, in the Latin title, according to the OED).[7][4] The English word appears in the mid-14th century[3][4] (mid-13th as a surname).[4]

Semantic evolution

The coroner was originally responsible for protecting the crown's property and interests, including the property of executed criminals.[2][3][4] The duties of the office gradually narrowed, and by the 17th century its chief function was to determine the cause of deaths that were not obviously natural.[3][4]

Timeline

  • 1194 – the office of guardian of the crown's pleas.[7]
  • about 1350 – corowner, an officer of the crown.[3][4]
  • 1577 – the chief officer of a sheading on the Isle of Man.[7]
  • 1600s – mainly an inquirer into unnatural deaths.[3][4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A public officer whose main duty is to hold an inquest into any death thought not to be from natural causes.
  2. The administrative head of a sheading on the Isle of Man.

Word family

  • coronership

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Coroner.” Etymologically, 14 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/coroner. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·