Coiffure descends from French coiffure ("hairstyle, headdress"), from the verb coiffer ("to arrange the hair, to put on a headdress"), from Old French coiffe ("a cap, headdress"). The Old French word came from Late Latin cofia ("helmet, cap"), which may itself be of Germanic origin — Old High German kupphia or kuppha ("cap") has been proposed as the source. If correct, coiffure represents another of those words that traveled from Germanic into Latin and back into a Germanic language through French.
The semantic journey from protective headgear to fashionable hairstyle is characteristic of French vocabulary development. The medieval coif was a practical garment — a close-fitting linen or silk cap worn under helmets by knights, as everyday headwear by both sexes, and as a professional headcovering by lawyers and clergy (the legal "coif" persists symbolically in the Order of the Coif, an American legal honor society). As caps gave way to elaborate hairstyles as the primary form of head presentation, the vocabulary shifted with the fashion: coiffer moved from "putting on a cap" to "arranging the hair."
The pinnacle of coiffure as art and engineering was reached in 18th-century France, particularly during the reign of Louis XVI. Marie Antoinette's personal hairdresser, Léonard Autié — known simply as Léonard — created towering confections of hair, powder, pomade, wire frames, and decoration that could rise three feet above the head. These poufs, as they were called, incorporated model ships, birdcages, flower arrangements, feathered plumes, and even miniature garden scenes. Women wearing these constructions had to
The coiffure tradition established France as the global center of hairdressing — a position it has never fully relinquished. The French terms coiffeur (hairdresser), coiffeuse (female hairdresser or dressing table), and salon de coiffure (hair salon) entered English and many other languages as prestige borrowings. In English, "coiffure" retains connotations of elegance and deliberate artistry that the simpler "hairstyle" or "hairdo" lack — one has a coiffure when the arrangement involves skill, intention, and perhaps a touch of French sophistication.