local Mining. Also Sc. cow. [The Sc. form is more etymological, corresp. to Du. kouw, MDu. and MLG. couwe, côje, Ger. kaue, MHG. kouwe, köwe, in same sense, also ‘cage’:—WGer. type *kauja, a. L. cavea hollow, stall, cage, coop, etc., f. cavus hollow. App. introduced from Low German as a mining term.
The same L. original gave CAVIE, and (through Romanic) CAGE; also the last syllable of DECOY, Du. kooi, cage.]
A little hut built over a mine-shaft, as a protection to the shaft, or as a repository for ore, tools, etc. Hence coe-shaft, coe-stead († -stid).
1653. Manlove, Lead Mines, 117. Such as be cavers, or do rob men’s coes. Ibid., 259. Water-holes, Wind-holes, Veyns, Coe-shafts and Woughs. Ibid., 273. Fleaks, Knockings, Coestid, Trunks and Sparks of oar.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., I j b. Fleaks [are] those very useful things that the miner uses to make for Shelter when he has as yet no Coe to hold off the Wind and Rain from his Shaft.
1815. Farey, Agric. & Min. Derbyshire, I. 360. Coes, or small buildings, were in time erected, for stowing the Ore, Tools, &c.
1825–79. Jamieson, Cow, a rude shed erected over the mouth of a coal-pit. Dumfr.
1890. A Correspondent says: ‘The word is still in use among Derbyshire lead-miners.’
¶ The following absurd ‘explanation’ of Phillips has been uncritically repeated in the Dictionaries.
1678. Phillips (App.), Coe, a word used among Miners, and signifying the little recess which they make for themselves under ground still as they work lower and lower.
1708–15. Kersey. So Bailey, Ash, and recent compilers.
