coign

English

Etymology

From Old French coigne (“wedge, cornerstone, die for stamping”), from Latin cuneus (“wedge”). See also quoin (“cornerstone”)

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kɔɪn/

Noun

coign (plural coigns)

1. A projecting corner or angle.
   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses

     Kind air defined the coigns of houses in Kildare street.

   • 1936, William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!!

     this snug monastic coign, this dreamy and heatless alcove of what we call the best of thought. #* 1964, Anthony Burgess, Nothing Like the Sun

     They lay quietly as the morning advanced its little way, hid snug in their greenwood coign. — #* 1977, Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane, ISBN 0-345-34865-6, page 212

     The wall was intricately labored—lined and coigned and serried with regular and irregular groups of windows, balconies, buttresses ...

   • 2007, Stephen R. Donaldson, Fatal Revenant, ISBN 978-0-399-15446-1, page 3

     In sunshine as vivid as revelation, Linden Avery knelt on the stone of a low-walled coign like a balcony high in the outward face of Revelstone's watchtower.

2. A wedge used in typesetting

Anagrams

• incog