Editor's Corner

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve discussed some terms and mentioned when and where these terms and phrases were coined. Now, someone has asked me about the term “coin a phrase.” Coining a phrase, as many of you know, means to create a new phrase. But where did this come from?

Here’s what I found out from The Phrase Finder:

…Coining, in the sense of creating, derives from the coining of money by stamping metal with a die. Coins—also variously spelled coynes, coigns, coignes, or quoins—were the blank, usually circular, disks from which money was minted. This usage derived from an earlier 14th century meaning of coin, which meant wedge. The wedge-shaped dies which were used to stamp the blanks were called coins and the metal blanks and the subsequent ‘coined’ money took their name from them.

Coining later began to be associated with inventiveness in language. In the 16th century the “coining” of words and phrases was often referred to. By that time the monetary coinage was often debased or counterfeit and the coining of words was often associated with spurious linguistic inventions; for example, in George Puttenham’s The arte of English poesie, 1589:

"Young schollers not halfe well studied… will seeme to coigne fine wordes out of the Latin."

Shakespeare, the greatest coiner of them all, also referred to the coining of language in Coriolanus, 1607:

"So shall my Lungs Coine words till their decay."

Quoin has been retained as the name of the wedge-shaped keystones or corner blocks of buildings. Printers also use the term as the name for the expandable wedges that are used to hold lines of type in place in a press. This has provoked some to suggest that “coin a phrase” derives from the process of quoining (wedging) phrases in a printing press. That is not so. “Quoin a phrase” is recorded nowhere and “coining” meant “creating” from before the invention of printing in 1440…

“Coin a phrase” itself arises much later than the invention of printing—the 19th century in fact. It appears to be American in origin—it certainly appears in publications there long before any can be found from any other parts of the world. The earliest use of the term that I have found is in the Wisconsin newspaper The Southport American, July 1848:

"Had we to find… a name which should at once convey the enthusiasm of our feelings towards her, we would coin a phrase combining the extreme of admiration and horror and term her the Angel of Assassination."

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services

About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

Did someone forward this email to you? Click here to subscribe.

Don’t want to get Editor’s Corner anymore? Click here to unsubscribe.

Do you have a question or an idea for Editor’s Corner? Click here to provide suggestions or feedback.

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.