# coffin
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈkɒfɪn/
* (US) IPA: /ˈkɔfɪn/
* (cot–caught merger) IPA: /ˈkɑfɪn/
* Audio (US):(file)
* (US) Homophone: coughing
* Rhymes: -ɒfɪn
* Rhymes: -ɒfən

### Etymology 1

From Middle English coffyn, from Old Northern French cofin (“sarcophagus", earlier "basket, coffer”), from Latin cophinus (“basket”), a loanword from Ancient Greek κόφινος (kóphinos, “a basket”). Doublet of coffer.

#### Noun

coffin (plural coffins)
* A closed box in which the body of a dead person is placed for burial.
    Synonym: (US) casket
** 1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:[…] Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards, / Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave, / Night and day journeys a coffin.
** 20 May 2018, Hadley Freeman in The Guardian, Is Meghan Markle the American the royals have needed all along?
    I’d always found the royals a cold proposition, Diana excepted, but the sight of that little boy, his head bent, not daring to look up at his mother’s coffin in front of him was, and remains, genuinely heartbreaking.
** 2022 September 21, “Network News: Decision not to use Royal Train sharply divides opinion”, in RAIL, number 966, page 8:Plans to carry the Queen's coffin from Edinburgh to London by rail were scrapped in favour of travel in a Royal Air Force cargo aircraft.
* (cartomancy) The eighth Lenormand card.
* (archaic) A casing or crust, or a mold, of pastry, as for a pie.
** c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:Of the paste a coffin I will rear.
** 1596, The Good Huswife's Jewell:Take your mallard and put him into the iuyce of the sayde Onyons, and season him with pepper, and salte, cloues and mace, then put your Mallard into the coffin with the saide iuyce of the onyons.
* (obsolete) A conical paper bag, used by grocers.
** 1577, John Frampton, Joyful News out of the New Found World:The smoke of this Hearbe, which they receaue at the mouth through certaine coffins, suche as the Grocers do vse to put in their Spices.
* The hollow crust or hoof of a horse's foot, below the coronet, in which is the coffin bone.
* A storage container for nuclear waste.
* A combination fence obstacle where the horse jumps a set of rails, strides downhill to a ditch, and then goes back uphill to another jump.

##### Alternative forms

* cophin, coffyn (archaic)

##### Synonyms

* (box for a dead body): wooden coat, wooden kimono, wooden overcoat, wooden surtout, pine box (euphemistic)

##### Hyponyms

* (box for a dead body): casket (upholstered)

##### Derived terms

* another nail in someone's coffin
* another nail in the coffin
* coffin birth
* coffin bone
* coffin corner
* coffin dodger
* coffin fly
* coffinful
* coffin handle
* coffinless
* coffinlike
* coffinmaker
* coffinmaking
* coffin nail
* coffin ride
* coffin rider
* coffin ship
* coffin tack
* drive a nail in someone's coffin
* encoffin
* encoffiner
* encoffinment
* final nail in the coffin
* flying coffin
* hanging coffin
* Job's Coffin
* last nail in the coffin
* nail in one's coffin
* recoffin
* safety coffin
* treetrunk coffin
* uncoffin
* Y-shaped coffin

##### Translations

Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
Adyghe: please add this translation if you can
Afrikaans: doodskis (af), kis (af)
Albanian: qivur (sq) m, arkivol (sq) m
Amharic: የሬሳ ሣጥን (yäresa śaṭn)
Antillean Creole: sèkèy, simòsoplanch
Arabic: تَابُوت (ar) m (tābūt)
Egyptian Arabic: تابوت m (tābūt)
Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
Armenian: դագաղ (hy) (dagaġ)
Asturian: caxa (ast) f, andes (ast) f pl (San Ciprián de Sanabria), tumba f (A Estierna), urna (ast) f (Tox)
Azerbaijani: tabut (az)
Bashkir: табут (tabut)
Belarusian: труна́ f (truná), гроб m (hrob), дамаві́на f (damavína), дамо́ўка f (damóŭka) (colloquial)
Bengali: শবাধার (bn) (śobadhar)
Bulgarian: ковче́г (bg) m (kovčég)
Burmese: ခေါင်း (my) (hkaung:)
Catalan: fèretre m, taüt (ca) m
Cebuano: lungon
Chinese:
Cantonese: 棺材 (gun$^1$ coi$^4$)
Dungan: гуанцэ (guance)
Eastern Min: 棺材 (guăng-chài)
Gan: 棺材 (guon$^1$ cai)
Hakka: 棺材 (kôn-chhòi)
Hokkien: 棺柴 (zh-min-nan) (koaⁿ-chhâ)
Jin: 棺材 (guan$^1$ cai$^1$)
Mandarin: 棺材 (zh), 棺 (zh) (guān)
Wu: 棺材 ($^1$kuoe-ze)
Xiang: 棺木 (gonn$^1$ mo$^6$)
Crimean Tatar: tabut
Czech: rakev (cs) f
Danish: kiste c, ligkiste c
Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
Dutch: doodskist (nl) f, kist (nl) f
Egyptian: (qrsw)
Esperanto: ĉerko (eo)
Estonian: puusärk, kirst (et)
Faroese: kista f, líkkista f
Finnish: ruumisarkku (fi), arkku (fi)
French: cercueil (fr) m
Galician: cadaleito m, caixa (gl) f, féretro m, ataúde m
Gallurese: baulu
Georgian: კუბო (ka) (ḳubo)
German: Sarg (de) m
Greek: φέρετρο (el) n (féretro)
Ancient: σορός f (sorós), λάρναξ f (lárnax)
Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
Haitian Creole: sèkey
Hebrew: אָרון (he) (arón), גְּלוֹסְקֵמָה (he) f (gloskemá)
Hindi: ताबूत (hi) m (tābūt)
Hungarian: koporsó (hu)
Icelandic: líkkista f, kista (is) f
Ido: sarko (io)
Ilocano: lungon
Indonesian: peti jenazah (id), peti mati (id), peti mayat (id), keranda (id)
Ingrian: ruumeenpuut, groba
Interlingua: please add this translation if you can
Irish: cónra (ga) f
Italian: bara (it) f, cassa da morto f, feretro (it) m
Japanese: 棺 (ja) (ひつぎ, hitsugi), 棺桶 (ja) (かんおけ, kan'oke)
Kapampangan: kabaung
Kazakh: табыт (tabyt)
Khmer: មឈូស (km) (mɔchuuh)
Korean: 관(棺) (ko) (gwan)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: دارەتەرم (dareterm)
Northern Kurdish: tabût (ku), darbest (ku)
Kyrgyz: табыт (ky) (tabıt)
Lao: ໂລງ (lōng), ຫີບສົບ (hīp sop), ໂຮງ (hōng)
Latgalian: škiersts, grobs
Latin: capulus m, arca f, loculus m
Latvian: zārks m
Lithuanian: karstas (lt) m
Livonian: please add this translation if you can
Luxembourgish: Lued f, Doudelued f
Macedonian: ковчег m (kovčeg)
Malay: keranda (ms)
Malayalam: ശവപ്പെട്ടി (ml) (śavappeṭṭi)
Maltese: tebut m
Manchu: ᡥᠣᠪᠣ (hobo)
Manx: coavin m, kishtey keyl m
Maori: kāwhena, puraku
Marathi: शवपेटी f (śavpeṭī), ताबूत m (tābūt), शवपेटिका f (śavpeṭikā)
Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: авс (mn) (avs)
Mongolian: ᠠᠪᠰᠠ (absa)
Neapolitan: tauto m
Nepali: टाँड (ṭā̃ḍ)
Norman: côffre m
Norwegian:
Bokmål: kiste (no) m or f, gravkiste m or f, likkiste m or f
Nynorsk: kiste f, likkiste f
Occitan: caissa (oc) f, taüc m, ataüc m
Ottoman Turkish: تابوت (tabut)
Pannonian Rusyn: труна f (truna)
Pashto: تابوت (ps) m (tābut)
Persian:
Dari: تَابُوت (fa) (tābūt)
Iranian Persian: تابوت (fa) (tâbut)
Plautdietsch: Soakj n
Polabian: lodo f, lodo f
Polish: trumna (pl) f
Portuguese: caixão (pt) m, ataúde (pt) m
Punjabi:
Gurmukhi: ਕਫ਼ਨ m (kafan), ਤਾਬੂਤ m (tābūt)
Romanian: sicriu (ro) n, (regional) coșciug (ro) n
Romansch: vaschè m
Russian: гроб (ru) m (grob), домови́на (ru) f (domovína) (obsolete)
Samogitian: grabs m
Sardinian:
Campidanese: baullu, lèttia
Logudorese: lettèra
Sassarese: littéra, bauri
Scottish Gaelic: ciste f, ciste-mhairbhe f, ciste-laighe f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: ко̀вчег m, лије̑с m, ле̑с m
Roman: kòvčeg (sh) m, lijȇs (sh) m, lȇs (sh) m
Sicilian: tabbutu (scn) m, cascia di mortu (scn) f
Silesian: truła f
Slovak: rakva f
Slovene: krsta (sl) f
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: kašć m
Spanish: ataúd (es) m, féretro (es) m, cajón (es) m (Latin America), urna (es) f (Venezuela), caja mortuoria f
Swahili: jeneza (sw)
Swedish: kista (sv) c, likkista (sv) c
Tagalog: kabaong (tl), ataul
Tajik: тобут (tg) (tobut)
Tamil: சவப்பெட்டி (ta) (cavappeṭṭi)
Tatar: табут (tt) (tabut)
Telugu: శవపేటిక (śavapēṭika)
Thai: โลง (th) (loong), โลงศพ (loong-sòp), หีบศพ (th) (hìip-sòp)
Tibetan: རོ་སྒམ (ro sgam)
Turkish: tabut (tr)
Turkmen: tabyt
Ukrainian: труна́ f (truná), гріб m (hrib), домови́на f (domovýna)
Urdu: تابُوت m (tābūt)
Uyghur: تاۋۇت (tawut)
Uzbek: tobut (uz)
Vietnamese: quan tài (vi) (棺材), hòm (vi)
Volapük: sark (vo)
Walloon: waxhea (wa) m, lujhea (wa) m
Welsh: arch (cy) f
Wolof: please add this translation if you can
Yiddish: אָרון m (orn)
Yucatec Maya: please add this translation if you can
Yup'ik: please add this translation if you can
Yámana: please add this translation if you can
Zazaki: please add this translation if you can
Zhuang: faex, gouh :

#### Verb

coffin (third-person singular simple present coffins, present participle coffining, simple past and past participle coffined)
* (transitive) To place in a coffin.
** 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 19, in Klee Wyck‎:Indians do not hinder the progress of their dead by embalming or tight coffining.
** 2007, Barbara Everett, “Making and Breaking in Shakespeare's Romances”, in London Review of Books, 29:6, page 21:The chest in which she is coffined washes ashore and is brought to the Lord Cerimon.

##### Synonyms

* encoffin

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

Borrowed from Cornish koghyn (“exploratory trench”), with spelling likely influenced by etymology 1.

#### Noun

coffin (plural coffins) (Cornwall)
* (mining, obsolete) An exploratory trench used when first digging a mine.
* (by extension) A deep ditch.

##### Alternative forms

* coffan, coffen, goffin, goffan, goffen

### Further reading

* coffin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

## Middle English
### Noun

coffin (plural)
* Alternative form of coffyn