chair

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /tʃeə/, US /tʃer/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chaere, chayere,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French chaiere (“chair, seat, throne”) (modern French chaire “pulpit, throne”),^[2][3][5] from Latin cathedra (“seat”),^[2][3] from Ancient Greek καθέδρα (kathédrā, “seat”), from kata- “down” and hédrā “seat, base”,^[3][4] from hézesthai “to sit”.^[4] The Old French form shows the regular loss of th between vowels and of d before r.^[3] The humbler sense of the French word passed in the 16th century to the variant chaise.^[2] The verb is from the noun.^[2][3] It is related to cathedral, chaise and sit.^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A seat with a back for one person: early 13th century in Etymonline^[2] and about 1225, in King Horn, in Barnhart;^[3] before 1300 in the OED.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The figurative “seat of office or authority”, from about 1300, was first used of bishops and professors.^[2][6] The professor's chair, from the seat from which a professor lectures (mid-15th century), came to mean the office of a professor in 1816.^[2] The seat of a person presiding at a meeting is from the 1640s,^[2] and so the chairperson.^[7][8] As short for electric chair it is American, from 1900.^[2][6] The bard's chair awarded at a Welsh Eisteddfod is from 1820.^[6] The verb meant “to install in a chair” in the mid-15th century,^[2] “to carry aloft in triumph” from 1761,^[6] and “to preside over” a meeting from 1921.^[2][3] Chairman is from 1654,^[3] chairwoman from 1681 and chairperson from 1971.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – a seat.^[3][2]
• c. 1300 – a seat of authority.^[2]
• 1640s – the seat of a person presiding.^[2]
• 1654 – chairman.^[3]
• 1761 – verb, to carry aloft.^[6]
• 1816 – a professorship.^[2]
• 1900 – the electric chair.^[2][6]
• 1921 – to preside over.^[2][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A seat for one person, with legs, a back and often arms.
2. A seat of office or authority, as of a bishop.
3. An office of authority, especially a professorship.
4. A person who presides over a meeting or organization; a chairperson.
5. The electric chair.

Verb

1. To install in a position of authority.
2. To preside over as chairperson.
3. (chiefly British) To carry aloft in triumph.

Word family

• chairless

Related words

• stool
• couch
• sofa
• settee
• love seat
• bench
• cathedral
• chaise
• sit
• chairman
• chairperson
• cathedra

Usage notes

An obsolete chair, “a chariot”, from Old French char, was assimilated in spelling to this word.^[9][6][4]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press