coiffure

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French coiffure.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwɑˈfjʊɚ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

coiffure (countable and uncountable, plural coiffures)

1. Hairstyle.

Translations

hairstyle — see hairstyle

Verb

coiffure (third-person singular simple present coiffures, present participle coiffuring, simple past and past participle coiffured)

1. (transitive) To style or arrange hair.
   • 1996 August 23, Ted Shen, “Angel Dust”, in Chicago Reader‎:

     Perfectly coiffured and seemingly imperturbable, Setsuko approaches madness as her psychological and sexual insecurities are dredged up by confrontations with her past and mind games with the suspected murderer.

   • 1920, E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Great Impersonation‎:

     Her eyes seldom left for long the other end of the table, where Stephanie, at Dominey's left hand, with her crown of exquisitely coiffured red-gold hair, her marvellous jewellery, her languorous grace of manner, seemed more like one of the beauties of an ancient Venetian Court than a modern Hungarian Princess gowned in the Rue de la Paix.

   • 1915, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo‎:

     Her hair was far less elaborately coiffured and her toilette less magnificent than the toilettes of the women by whom she was surrounded.

   • 1842, Edgcumbe Staley, The Tragedies of the Medici‎:

     Her attire is rich, she wears costly jewels, and her hair is tastefully coiffured.

Anagrams

• coiffeur

French

Etymology

From coiffer (“to cover the head, to give a haircut, style the hair”) +‎ -ure.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwa.fyʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Noun

coiffure f (plural coiffures)

1. headwear, headgear (garment worn on someone's head)
2. hairstyle

Derived terms

• coiffure à la garçonne
• salon de coiffure

Related terms

• coiffer
• coiffeur

Descendants

• → English: coiffure
• → Ottoman Turkish: قوافور (kuvafür)
  • Turkish: kuvafür
• → Polish: koafiura

Further reading

• “coiffure”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• coiffeur