coy

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English coi,^[2] borrowed from Old French coi, earlier quei, with the Anglo-Norman forms coi, coy and quoy,^[3][4][5] from Vulgar Latin quētus, a form recorded in glossaries and inscriptions,^[3][4][6] a variant of Latin quiētus (“at rest, still, quiet”),^[3][7][8] the past participle of quiēscō (“to rest”).^[8] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace the Latin word to Proto-Indo-European *kweiə- (“to rest, be quiet”).^[7][8] The French word meant quiet, still, silent and undisturbed from the 12th century, and in Anglo-Norman also shy or demure from the 13th.^[3][9] Quiet, which came straight from the Latin through Old French, and quit are its doublets.^[6][4][10] The word is found earlier in surnames, such as Walter le Coi (1203); the OED thinks the name Coyman (1230), which Barnhart cites, more likely Dutch.^[3][4] Weekley notes that early phrases such as “to hold oneself coy” render se tenir coi.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person, quiet or still, chiefly in phrases such as “to hold oneself coy”: about 1380, in Sir Ferumbras.^[3] Barnhart dates the sense "quiet, still" to before 1338, in Mannyng's chronicle,^[4] and Etymonline to the early 14th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the sense "quiet" soon gave way to "shyly reserved" and died out in the 17th century.^[6] The shy sense appears in Chaucer's portrait of the Prioress in the Canterbury Tales, ful symple and coy in her smiling.^[2][3][4] From it the word came to describe a woman unresponsive to advances, often with a hint of affectation.^[3][12] In the 16th century it could also mean reluctant to do something (1539), aloof or disdainful (before 1568), and in falconry a hawk that shunned people (1575).^[3][13] Johnson (1755) defined it as "modest; decent" and "reserved; not accessible".^[14] The sense "unwilling to give details, not forthcoming" is recorded from 1654,^[3] and Etymonline dates "unwilling to commit oneself" to 1961.^[7] From 1933 the word is also used, often disparagingly, of something done with a pretended reluctance to be explicit.^[3][13] A verb coy, to calm, then to caress or coax, was formed in the 15th century, either from the adjective or by shortening of accoy.^[3][15][16]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – of a person, quiet, still (obsolete by 1858).^[3][13]
• c. 1387–95 – shy or modest, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.^[3][2][4]
• before 1413 – verb, to calm or appease (obsolete).^[3]
• 1539 – reluctant, disinclined to do something.^[3][13]
• before 1568 – aloof, disdainful (obsolete by 1665).^[3]
• 1577 – of looks or behaviour, expressing modest shyness, often affected.^[3][13]
• 1582 – verb, to coy it, to behave coyly.^[3]
• 1654 – unwilling to give information, not forthcoming.^[3][13]
• 1933 – done with a pretended reluctance to be explicit.^[3][13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Pretending to be shy or modest, especially in a playful or flirtatious way: She gave him a coy smile over her menu.^[17][16][3]
2. Shy and reserved; bashful.^[17][16]
3. Unwilling to give details or to commit oneself; evasive: The minister was coy about the date of the election.^[17][3][7]
4. (obsolete) Quiet, still.^[3][16][2]

Verb

1. (archaic) To behave coyly; to feign shyness, often in coy it.^[16][3][15]

Word family

• coyly
• coyness
• coyish
• coyishness
• overcoy
• uncoy

Related words

• quiet
• quit
• quietus
• accoy
• decoy
• acquiesce

Usage notes

A separate noun coy, a pond for trapping wild ducks, is borrowed from kooi, from Latin cavea (“enclosure, cage”),^[3][15] and survives in dialects from Yorkshire to Somerset;^[18] it is the source of decoy.^[15]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e f g Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ 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)