Wordorigins.org

Sometimes interesting words and phrases are right under our noses. After using it countless times on this site, a reader asked me where the term to coin a phrase came from?

The verb to coin originally meant to literally mint a coin. It dates to the 14th century, first appearing in Robert Brunne’s Langtoft’s Chronicle, written about 1330:

The kynge’s side salle be the hede & his name writen; the croyce side what cite it was in coyned & smyten.
(The king’s side shall be the head & [have] his name written [on it]; the cross side [shall have] what city it was coined & smitten in.)