Other forms: coifs
A coif is a close-fitting cloth head covering tied under the chin. A linen coif, wear a coif, the coif beneath the helmet.
Medieval women wore one under everything else, and a soldier wore one beneath a helmet to stop the metal chafing. The modern hairdressing sense, a coif meaning a styled head of hair, comes from the same French word.
1nouncoifA close-fitting cloth head covering tied under the chin, worn by medieval women or beneath a helmet.
“The farmer's wife in the old painting wears a white linen coif and a long apron.”
coif is a covering.
Old French coife comes from Latin cofia, a cap, from a Germanic word.
Proto-Germanic
*kuppijǭ — cap, hat, bonnet, headpiece
Proto-West Germanic
*kuffju
Latin
cofia
Old French
coife
Middle English
coif
English, today
coif
Built from
From Middle English coif, coife, coyf, coyfe, coyffe, from Old French coife, coiffe, from Latin cofia, from Proto-West Germanic kuffju, related to Old High German kupphia, kupha, kupfe (“mug, hood, cap”), from Proto-Germanic kuppijǭ (“cap, hat, bonnet, headpiece”), Proto-Germanic kuppō (“vat, mug, cup”), from pre-Germanic kubná-, from Proto-Indo-European gup- (“round object, knoll”), from Proto-Indo-European gew- (“to bend, curve, arch, vault”). Cognate with Middle High German kupfe* (“cap, headgear, helmet”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA