What does coign mean?
Coign is a noun meaning a corner or projecting angle, most often of a building or wall. Though once usable freely in architectural description, it survives in modern English almost entirely within the elegant fixed phrase 'a coign of vantage', popularised by Shakespeare's Macbeth, which denotes a favourable or commanding position from which to observe events or act strategically. Writers reach for the phrase when they want a slightly elevated, literary tone: a journalist might take up a coign of vantage at a summit meeting, or a narrator describe a character surveying a room from one. The word is a variant spelling of quoin, the term still standard in masonry for a cornerstone set at a building's external angle. Pronounced identically to 'coin' (/kɔɪn/), it is occasionally misread as a misspelling, but it carries no connection to money. Coign derives ultimately from Latin cuneus, meaning wedge, via Old French, making it a distant relative of cuneiform, the wedge-shaped script of ancient Mesopotamia.
nounA corner or projecting angle, especially of a building or wall; chiefly used in the literary phrase 'a coign of vantage', meaning a favourable position for observation or action.
- A corner or angle of a building or structure.
- (In the fixed phrase 'coign of vantage') A position offering an advantageous view or strategic opportunity.
"From her coign of vantage on the balcony, she watched the whole procession wind through the square."
"The mason carefully squared each coign of the tower with dressed stone."
"The reporter secured a coign of vantage beside the podium before the press conference began."
The plural is rare, since the word itself is uncommon and usually appears in the singular within the fixed phrase 'a coign of vantage'.
"The old fortress's weathered coigns gave its silhouette a jagged, medieval profile."
'A coign of vantage' — Shakespeare's phrase for the perfect spot to watch it all unfold — is nearly the only place this ancient word for 'corner' still survives.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of coign
Coign comes from Old French coigne, meaning wedge or corner, which descends from Latin cuneus, 'wedge'. English borrowed it in Middle English, and the variant spelling quoin became the established form in architecture and printing. Its enduring literary life owes much to Shakespeare's 'from his own coign of vantage' in Macbeth, which fixed the phrase in the language. Other descendants of the same Latin root include cuneiform, the wedge-shaped writing system of ancient Mesopotamia.
How coign is actually used
Coign is rare outside literary or elevated prose, and today appears almost exclusively within the fossilised expression 'a coign of vantage'. The spelling 'quoin' is preferred in technical architectural and printing contexts. It is pronounced exactly like 'coin'.
Easily confused with coign
Coin is a piece of metal money, while coign is a corner or vantage point; they are pronounced identically but entirely unrelated in meaning.
Quoin is a variant spelling of coign used specifically in architecture and printing for a solid external corner stone or a typeface wedge.