Etymologically
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chair

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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
  • 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