/kɔɪl/
[noun] A length of rope, wire, or similar material arranged in a series of loops on top of each other. It can also refer to a single loop or ring within such an arrangement.
Shakespeare used 'coil' to mean the noisy chaos of mortal life — making 'shuffling off this mortal coil' about escaping life's turmoil, not uncoiling a rope.
The word 'coil' enters English in the early 16th century, most likely from the Old French verb 'coillir' or its variant 'cueillir', meaning 'to gather' or 'to collect'. This Old French word itself descended from the Latin 'colligere', which combined 'com-' (together) and 'legere' (to gather, to pick). The physical image at the heart of the word is therefore one of gathering things together — loops of rope pulled into an organised bundle.
The Latin root 'legere' was remarkably productive. Through Old French 'cueillir' it gave us 'coil', but along other routes it also produced words like 'collect' (Latin colligere → Middle English collecten), 'cull' (Old French coillir → Middle English cullen → English cull), and even 'neglect' (Latin neglegere → English neglect). The shared idea across all of these is the act of choosing or gathering — picking things up from a wider field.
When 'coil' first appeared in English, it was primarily used as a verb meaning to gather or arrange rope into loops. Sailors and workers with ropes and cables would 'coil' their lines to keep them neat and manageable. The noun form — a coil of rope, a coil of wire — developed naturally from this verbal use, describing the looped object that resulted from the action of coiling. By the 17th century, both verb and noun senses were firmly established in the language.
There is, however, a second and entirely separate strand of 'coil' in English that has nothing to do with loops or rope. This older sense means 'turmoil', 'noise', or 'fuss' — the kind of chaotic bustle associated with busy human life. This 'coil' likely comes from a different source, possibly related to the Irish and Scottish Gaelic 'goill' (stranger, foreigner) or from an unknown origin. It is this second meaning that Shakespeare famously uses in Hamlet, when the prince contemplates death as 'the undiscovered country' and speaks of 'shuffling off this mortal coil'. Here 'coil' means the noisy, troubled burden of earthly existence — not a loop of rope at all.
Over the centuries, the 'turmoil' sense of coil has almost completely disappeared from everyday English, leaving most modern readers puzzled by Shakespeare's phrase. Meanwhile, the 'loop' sense flourished and expanded into science and technology. By the 19th century, 'coil' had become essential vocabulary in physics and engineering — a coil of wire wound around a core became fundamental to electromagnetism and the electric motor. Today, Tesla coils, induction coils, and coil springs all carry the word into thoroughly modern territory, while its original meaning of simply 'gathering together' lies quietly at the root.