i was looking for something, and stumbled across quoin -- the fancy stone corner pieces in a building. related to groin. (both the part of the body, and the sea wall to prevent shifting sands..)
and a varient of Coin.. (as in money) Bartleby's bring the word back to the latin
coin
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Old French, die for stamping coins, wedge, from Latin cuneus, wedge.
but my Websters at home hints at an even older linage.. an IE root of *KU-- pointed..
any one have a better dictionary? i am already amazed..
coin is all over the board for meanings.. and groin and quoin are first cousins.. what other words can we find on the family tree?
NOUN: 1. A small piece of metal, usually flat and circular, authorized by a government for use as money. 2. Metal money considered as a whole. 3. A flat circular piece or object felt to resemble metal money: a pizza topped with coins of pepperoni. 4. Architecture A corner or cornerstone. 5. A mode of expression considered standard: Two-word verbs are valid linguistic coin in the 20th century.
TRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: coined, coin·ing, coins
1. To make (pieces of money) from metal; mint or strike: coined silver dollars. 2. To make pieces of money from (metal): coin gold. 3. To devise (a new word or phrase).
ADJECTIVE: Requiring one or more pieces of metal money for operation: a coin washing machine.
IDIOM: the other side of the coin One of two differing or opposing views or sides.
Dear of troy: check out this URL, which if you browse a while has some interesting relationships between the words that interested you and some anatomical terms.
http://www.uni-ulm.de/uni/intgruppen/memosys/cunni06.htm
Groin is also the lap area of your physiology. For instance, you can pull a groin muscle.
The Only WO'N!
Like quoin and coin, groin is an architectural term. A
groin is the curved line where two intersecting vaults or arches meet. It's hard to describe in words, so here's a link to a picture of a
groin vault.
http://www.pitt.edu/~medart/menuglossary/groinvault.htm
Flatlander,
Terrific drawing of the groin vault. I also clicked on the barrel vault link and thought, "It's just an elongated arch; wonder when an arch stops being an arch and becomes a barrel vault?"
Yes, both groin and quoin are wedges.. one can be a anatomical, (groin area)-- quoins are corner blocks-- wedges of different sort, joining two walls..
coin joins in from the kind of wedge shaped "presses" used to create coins-- the money..
and the latin root of cuneus... (wedge) also show up in anatomical words.. and cuniform as Dr. bill pointed out.
Over here (UK) if we're talking about the sea defences then it's usually spelt 'groyne' - helps to differentiate! It doesn't seem though that either of the others does that. Do you think they came from different roots?
Yes, they are. In fact it was groyne that started me thumbing throught the dictionary..and lend to groin, and it thought of quoin, which led to coin.. and so on, and so on..
i was hoping someone would have some more info on the possible IE root..*ku.. i couldn't find anything in Bartleby's, and don't currently own an OED.
both groin and quoin are wedges..
but they surely have completely different etymologies?
groin (groin)
n.
1. Anatomy. The crease or hollow at the junction of the inner part of each thigh with the trunk, together with the adjacent region and often including the external genitals.
2. Architecture. The curved edge at the junction of two intersecting vaults.
3. A small jetty extending from a shore to protect a beach against erosion or to trap shifting sands.
tr.v., groined, groin·ing, groins.
To provide or build with groins.
Alteration (influenced by LOIN) of Middle English grinde, perhaps from Old English grynde, abyss, hollow.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
edit: hmm, no, I see the areas of overlap, but must admit I still don't follow the entire picture - need to coin some more time to study it!
my dictionary at home shows a relationship going back to the latin cuneas-- wedge shaped..
of course it could be wrong.. but it wedge shaped works for the anatomy, and for the (in effect) wedge shaped sea walls, and for the corner blocks in a building, and the money was created on presses that had a wedge shape.. cuniform is made from a series of wedge shaped marks..
If i can i'll pull info from bartleby's but it is open for discussion..
both groin and quoin are wedges...quoins are corner
blocks-- wedges of different sort
(also "coign")
Additional meaning: in the Good Old Days, when type was set by hand out of the California Job Case, the block of carefully-ordered type was placed into a form (the "chase"), the rest of the space filled out with blocks, and then the whole page was firmly fixed in place by tightening wedge-shaped pieces against each other, one set horizontal and another vertical, to use up any remaining space. The wedges were called - you guessed it - quoins, and the gadget used to do the final tightening was a "quoin key."
(And if you were so unfortunate as to drop the form before it was rigid, everything fell apart - the type was now "pied" - and you had to start all over again, and you were QUITE unhappy about all that wasted effort.)
If I can find a URL for the quoin, I'll add it on.
edit: Durn. Lots of places with words to describe the process, but I couldn't find one with a picture.
I have a quoin key somewhere. All metal type was set in chases on stones, regardless of whether it was hand or machine set. I should know ...
I also have a whole handful of linotype space bands, if anyone's interested!
I also have a whole handful of linotype space bands And,
how much did you pay your movers, m'dear?
A photo of a quoin key:
http://users.bestweb.net/~bpress/press/tools1.html
And a photo of one in use:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?X57152BB
You got it :-) And the kids are just about the right age, too. Thanks for refreshing the memories!