cofia

Galician

A Galician woman wearing the traditional cofia

Serafín Avendaño, Landscape with Galician woman (1891). Note the coif.

Alternative forms

• coifa

Etymology

From Late Latin cofia, from Proto-West Germanic *kuffju. Compare Middle High German kupfe (“cap”), Old High German kupphia (“cap”), English coif, French coiffer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔfja/ [ˈkɔ.fjɐ]
• Rhymes: -ɔfja
• Hyphenation: co‧fia

Noun

cofia f (plural cofias)

1. coif, hood (traditionally made in lace and worn by women)

   Synonym: touca

   • 1746, frei Martín Sarmiento, Coloquio de 24 gallegos rústicos:

     comprarein na vila cousas a desexo: corpiño, manguiñas, cintiñas, ourelos, e mais unha coifa e mais un espello

     I'll buy in town everything I'd wish: bodice, sleeves, ribbons, borders, and a coif and a mirror

2. cloth-like tissue which surrounds the guts of animals

   Synonym: touca

3. (historical) coif (chain mail or cloth headgear)
   • 1361, X. Ferro Couselo, editor, A vida e a fala dos devanceiros. Escolma de documentos en galego dos séculos XIII ao XVI, Vigo: Galaxia, page 92:

     mando vender a miña cóffea do çendal e hua maça d'açeyro [..] et dous canbaysses e hua cóffea d'armar et mays huun rocín

     I order to sell my coif of sendal and an iron mace [..] and two cabaysses [?] and a coif of armor and a rowney

Related terms

• cofar

Further reading

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “cofia”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “cofia”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “cofia”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “cofia”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “cofia”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “cofia”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Italian

Noun

cofia f (plural cofie)

1. cap

Anagrams

• ciofa, fioca, focai

Portuguese

Verb

cofia

1. inflection of cofiar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Late Latin cofia, from Proto-West Germanic *kuffju. See also Middle High German kupfe (“cap”), Old High German kupphia (“cap”), English coif.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkofja/ [ˈko.fja]
• Rhymes: -ofja
• Syllabification: co‧fia

Noun

cofia f (plural cofias)

1. cap (head covering of a nurse or waitress)
2. (rockets) payload fairing

Further reading

• “cofia”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔvja/

Verb

cofia

1. inflection of cofio:
   1. second-person singular imperative
   2. third-person singular present/future literary
   3. first-person singular future colloquial

Mutation

Mutated forms of cofia

radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
cofia	gofia	nghofia	chofia

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.