coe (n.)

"hut built by miners over a mine shaft," to store their equipment, etc., 1650s, from some source akin to Dutch kouw, German kaue in the same sense, from West Germanic *kauja-, an early borrowing of Latin cavea "hollow," from cavus "a hollow" (from PIE root *keue- "to swell," also "vault, hole").

updated on January 10, 2018