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Want a coffin?! - The original meaning of 'coffin'

By thorgal on Jan 7, 2008 | In Altered English

When Petruchio in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew speaks of a 'coffin', he uses it to describe the shape of a cap:

"Why, thou say'st true; it is a paltry cap,
A custard-coffin, a bauble, a silken pie:" (Act IV, Scene III)

So did people wear hats in the shape of a wooden box meant to bury people in?

...

Well, as 'custard' and 'pie' used in the same line suggest, 'coffin' was then rather the raised crust of a pie.

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