Other forms: coils, coiled, coiling
A coil is something wound round and round in rings. A coil of rope, a coil of wire, wound into a coil.
In electricity a coil of wire makes a magnetic field when current flows, which is the basis of motors, transformers and ignition coils. In heating and cooling, a coil is the looped pipe that carries the fluid. As a verb, to coil is to wind into rings — the snake coiled, coil the hose. Note coiled spring, used of somebody tense and ready to move.
1nouncoilSomething wound round and round in rings.
“There is a coil of rope in the boot that has been there for years.”
2verbwindTo wind into rings.
“The snake coiled and stayed absolutely still.”
coil is a wound shape.
Old French coillir means to gather, from Latin colligere — the same verb as collect. A coil is gathered rope, which is exactly what a sailor does with it.
Proto-Indo-European
*leǵ-
Latin
colligō — to gather together
Old French
coillir
Middle English
coilen
English, today
coil
Built from
From Middle English coilen, from Old French coillir, cuillir (“to gather, pluck, pick, cull”) (modern French cueillir), from Latin colligō (“to gather together”), past participle collectus, from com- (“together”) + legō (“to gather”); compare legend. a doublet of cull.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA