Coil
/kɔɪl/noun
To wind or arrange in a series of loops; also, a looped or spiraled form.
Did you know?Coil comes through French from Latin colligere, meaning “to gather together,” so its history is really about things being drawn into one compact mass before the looping sense emerged.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*leg-
“to gather, collect, choose”
Latin
Latin
colligō
“I gather together, collect”
Late Latin
Latin
colligere
“to gather together”
Old French
Old French
coillir / coillir
“to gather, collect”
Middle English
English
coilen
“to wind or curl up; to gather into a compact form”
Modern English
English
coil
“a series of loops or a winding form”