Searchable Lemmata: coife (AF), coifa (L), coiff (W), coif (OScots), coif (MdE).
Alternate Forms: cuphia, cofe, coif, coifve, choife, koife, caife, quaif, cofie, coifia, coif, koif.
1a(n.)
Headgear;
close-fitting cap or head covering made in a variety of shapes and sizes at various periods, sometimes surmounted by a hat or headdress; worn by men and women.
From the thirteenth century, the term coif generally refers to a form-fitting cap worn against the head, alone or beneath other pieces of headdress, most often made from linen, occasionally covering the ears and often tied under the chin. From the middle decades of the fourteenth century, non-military uses of the term coif increasingly refer to the uniform coif or skullcap worn by lawyers and clerics, occasionally referred to as a houve (Old English húfe). The clerical coif was typically made from silk, linen or lawn and covered the tonsure or the scalp and hair.
The ‘coif’ continued as part of ladies’ dress through the fifteenth century, most often worn under other pieces of headwear, while for men coifs had become reserved for specific uniforms (lawyers, etc.). From the late medieval period, a ceremonial coif was worn by a serjeant-at-law as part of his official dress. In many attestations, the material is specified (such as L coifa linea, AF coife de lin, a linen coif; L coifa ferrea; coife de linge, a cloth cap, and cf. coife de cuir).(ante 1100 still in current use)
2. [416] ... Hec subuncla: chemisce ... hic anulus: anel ... Hec armilla, Hec torques, bende d’or ... Hec crepita: bote ... Hec capa pl[u]vialis: cape a pluie ... Hec capa profilata, chape a porfil ... hec capa singularis: cape sengle ... Hec thiara: coife ... Hoc impedium: empeigne ... hee brace: brais et plr. hec saraballa -lorum et hoc femorale: famillares a moine ... hoc flameolum: hastecul ... hoc toreuma, lit urné ... [417] ... Hec superus et plr. hec supera: kevestron ... hec perizomata: quissel de brais
Gloss.
[AND TLL (i 416-417) ante 1300]
4. senescallus ... Willelmi de Valentia ... captus est coram judicibus judicandus; et, cum non posset objectis respondere ... , voluit ligamenta sue coife solvere, ut palam monstraret tonsuram se habere clericalem; non est permissus, sed ... satelles, ... non per coife ligamina sed per guttur eum apprehendens, traxit ad carcerem
Historic.
[DMLBS M. PAR. (Maj. V 738) circa 1259]
Sex: Male, Female Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: Head.
1b(n.)
Headgear;
military headdress; variously a mail hood worn by armed knights, either as a separate piece of armour or as a hood to the hauberk, worn alone or beneath a helmet; or made from linen or similar, from leather, or else from iron or steel, such as the ‘coiffis ferri’ mentioned in the English Pipe Roll accounts for 1196, the ‘coiffe d'acier’ mentioned by Jean d’Arras in the Roman de Mélusine (1392-3). In a few thirteenth-century British manuscripts, there are references to ‘coifs’ as helmets specifically of Turkish origin (‘unam koyfam Turkasiam de ferro’ in a royal letter from c. 1217, also cf. the Curia Regis Rolls from 1220, the Rolls of Justices in Eyre for Worcestershire from 1221 and the reference to ‘j coyfam de Torkeys’ in a 1289 case for the court of the King’s Bench).(circa 1180 ?)
1. [10196] ... Cheent mailes, fausent hobercs E les choifes tut en travers ... [10202] ... De la manicle del poing destre Est ja rumpue la coreie
Heroic, Poetic, Romance.
[AND Ipom BFR (10196-10202) circa 1180]
5. hee sunt armature quas ... recepit ... : unam loricam, ... j gardecors de ferro, j cohoperturas ferreas, j caligas ferreas, j galeam, j cap[ellum ferreum], j paelett'; et de lineis armaturis j purpunctum et j espauleram de nigro cendalo, ... quiseram et coleram et coifam et tunicam armandam et duo paria cohopertoriorum ...
Accounts.
[DMLBS CurR (XI 1913) 1224]
Sex: Male Use: Military Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: Head.
1c(n.)
Headgear;
hair-net or similar hair ornament (may be some overlap with sense 1a).(circa 1200 - circa 1300)
1. spinter: affiçayl, fiçail. ... crinale: garlaunde de chef, treces, bende ... mataxa: serense, bechele hechele, sarence ... reticulo: calle, coife ... digitale: deel ... [244.65] ... tricaturas: tressures, curchures, tresces
Gloss.
[AND GlossNequam (244-244.65) circa 1200]
2. [52] ... saginas: hernais vel hucel ... [53] ... succinctoria: baudree ... galearum: chapau de feuter ... reticula: quaif ... insubelino: essubels vel heveldes ab insubilo ... reticulas: beablet
Gloss.
[AND TLL (ii 52-53) ante 1300]
Sex: Male, Female Use: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: Head.
2(n.)
Body part;
face; head.(circa 1250)
Sex: Male, Female, Infant Use: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: Head.
1e(n.)
Headgear;
head covering worn as surgical dressing.(circa 1425)
Sex: Male, Female Use: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: Head.
Definite, Late Latin presumed form cuffia (attested as cofea, cuphia); Old High German (presumed) kupphja, derived from chuppa (hood, mitre, cowl), Middle High German kupfe (cap). Forms/uses may also derive from Old English cufle or cugle (a monk’s cowl), from Latin culcullus [s.v. 'coif, n.', OED, 2nd ed. 1989; <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/35964>, accessed 28 October 2011; cf also cuffie, see Chambers and Owen-Crocker (2008)].
Listed by Bernard Deinsberg under the heading 'Disappearance of Latin loans in Old English and re-borrowing from Anglo-French (or Latin) in Middle English (or Early Modern English)', in ‘Survival of Old English Lexical Units of either Native or Latin Origin or Re-borrowing from Anglo-French in Middle English’ in Johnston, Andrew James, Ferdinand von Mengden, and Stefan Thim, eds. Language and Text: Current Perspectives on English and Germanic Historical Linguistics and Philology(Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2006), pp.41-56.
WF:
Etym Cog:
