Dictionary

cofferdam en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈkɒ.fə.dæm/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈkɑ.fɚ.dæm/ (General-American)
• (UK) audio

Etymology

From coffer + dam. The dental dam sense was introduced in English by dentist Sanford Christie Barnum at New York City in 1864 (by metaphor), but after his century it was maintained only in languages other than English (for example, German Kofferdam as a loanword from 19th-century English).

Meanings

1. A temporary watertight enclosure used to create a dry foundation for building bridges and other structures over water.
   • He stood full six feet in height, with noble shoulders, and a chest like a coffer-dam. 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:
   • At fixed injection volume of PVC gels solution, the curvature of MLAs [(microlens arrays)] obtained with patterned electrode substrates at fixed sizes of cofferdam can be tuned by changing the preparation voltage. 2020, Peiwen Xu, Miao Xu, Hongbo Lu, Longzhen Qiu, “Polyvinyl chloride gels microlens array with a well-controlled curvature obtained by solvent evaporation under DC electric fields”, in Optics Express, volume 28, number 20, →DOI, pages 29285–29295:
   • The contractor for the cofferdams, &c., was an Englishman, as were the principle workmen, and all the machinery has been supplied from England. 1847, editorial staff, “Enormous Suspension-Bridge”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 9, page 65:
   • Downstream there was a small wooden cofferdam and when he woke there were naked children splashing in the pool there and he rose and wrapped his jacket about his waist and walked out along the bank where he could sit and watch them. 1992, Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, →ISBN:
   • Where the viaduct crosses the lake, the piles will be bored directly into the lakebed, using a cofferdam to hold back the water while the pier is built. 2022 January 12, “Network News: First pier cast for HS2's Colne Valley Viaduct”, in RAIL, number 948, page 10:
2. An empty space that acts as a protective barrier between two floors or bulkheads on a ship.
3. (obsolete) Synonym of dental dam (“barrier to keep the teeth dry during dental work”) (dental sense).
   • I refer to Dr. Barnum, who has given us the coffer-dam. I cannot detain you while I describe the immense benefit which his application of a very simple material has conferred on the public. 1874 March 2, Edwin Sercombe, Esq., “Dental News and Critical Reports. Odontological Society of Great Britain. General monthly meeting and conversazione.”, in British Journal of Dental Science, volume 17, page 166:
   • Dr. La Roche then first we are informed made the claim that he knew of and used rubber for a coffer dam prior to Barnum. 1884, “Barnum’s rubber dam”, in The New England Journal of Dentistry, volume 3, number 1, pages 27–28:

Forms

Coordinates

caisson

Hypernyms

barrier · dam · structure · enclosure · protection

Relateds

caisson disease

Synonyms

dental dam · coffer · caisson

Translations (11)

it cassone (temporary watertight structure) · nl kistdam (temporary watertight structure) · ota صندوق (temporary watertight structure) · de Kofferdamm (temporary watertight structure) · fi arkkupato (temporary watertight structure) · es ataguía (temporary watertight structure) · pl grobla (temporary watertight structure) · pl koferdam (temporary watertight structure) · fr batardeau (temporary watertight structure) · it tura (temporary watertight structure) · da cellefangedæmning (temporary watertight structure)

wikipedia: de:Sanford Christie Barnum · wikidata: Q1255545 · wikidata: Q205077 · wikidata: Q1630725