A coffin is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, either for burial or cremation.
The word took two different paths, cofin in Old French originally meaning basket, became coffin in English and became couffin in modern French which nowadays means a cradle. A distinction is often made between coffin and casket: the latter is generally understood to denote a four-sided (almost always rectangular) funerary box, while a coffin is usually six-sided. However, coffins having a one-piece side with a curve at the shoulder instead of a join are more commonly used in the United Kingdom (UK).