cofia

Galician

A Galician woman wearing the traditional cofia

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

Alternative forms

• coifa

Etymology

Debated. From Late Latin cofia, of possible West Germanic origin. Compare Middle High German kupfe (“cap”), Old High German kupphia (“cap”), English coif, French coiffer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔfja̝/

Noun

cofia f (plural cofias)

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

   Synonym: touca

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

   Synonym: touca

3. (archaic) helm, helmet
   • 1361, X. Ferro Couselo (ed.), 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

References

• Template:R:DDGM
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “cofya”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “cóffea”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Template:R:DDLG
• Template:R:TILG
• 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

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Italian

Noun

cofia f (plural cofie)

1. cap

   brimless cylindrical cap with a flat crown, worn by men in Somalia

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Portuguese

Verb

cofia

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

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Spanish

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Late Latin cofia, of West (deprecated template usage) [etyl]  origin. See also Middle High German kupfe (“cap”), Old High German kupphia (“cap”), English coif.

Noun

cofia f (plural cofias)

1. cap (head covering of a nurse or waitress)

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Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔvja/

Verb

cofia

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

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
cofia	gofia	nghofia	chofia
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.