Other forms: coffers
A coffer is a strong chest for keeping money and valuables. The royal coffers, fill the coffers, empty coffers.
The plural is now nearly always figurative: the nation's coffers means its funds, and empty coffers is the standard phrase for a treasury with nothing in it. In architecture a coffer is a sunken panel in a ceiling.
1nouncofferA strong chest for keeping money and valuables.
“The treasure was kept in an iron-bound coffer in the castle's tower.”
coffer is a chest.
Old French cofre comes from Latin cophinus, a basket; coffin is a doublet.
Ancient Greek
κόφινος — basket
Latin
cophinus — basket
Old French
cofre
Middle English
cofre
English, today
coffer
From Middle English cofre, coffre, from Old French cofre, from Latin cophinus (“basket”), from Ancient Greek κόφινος (“basket”). a doublet of coffin. Cognate with German Koffer (“a suitcase”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA