chamber

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈtʃeɪm.bə/, US /ˈtʃeɪm.bɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chaumbre, borrowed from Old French chambre (“room, apartment”),^[2][3] from Late Latin camera (“a chamber, room”), in Latin “vault, arch”,^[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamárā, “vaulted chamber, anything with an arched cover”).^[3][5] It is a doublet of camera.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A room in a house, usually a private one such as a bedroom: about 1200 in Etymonline and before 1200 in Barnhart, in the Ancrene Riwle;^[2][3] before 1300 in the OED.^[7]

Semantic evolution

A legislative or judicial body is from about 1400 (about 1325 in the OED), from the rooms where such assemblies met.^[2][7] In anatomy, an enclosed space in the body is from the late 14th century,^[2] and of firearms the part of the bore that holds the charge from the 1620s.^[2] A judge's private room, chambers, is from 1641.^[7] A chamber pot takes its name from the bedroom.^[2] Chamber music (1765), originally meant for smaller rooms, renders Italian da camera.^[2][3] A Chamber of Commerce is from 1788.^[7] The verb, to shut up as in a chamber, is from the late 14th century.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – a private room.^[2][3]
• c. 1325 – an assembly.^[7]
• late 14th century – a space in the body.^[2]
• 1620s – the chamber of a gun.^[2]
• 1765 – chamber music.^[2]
• 1788 – Chamber of Commerce.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A large room used for a special purpose, especially for formal meetings.
2. One of the houses of a parliament or legislature.
3. An enclosed space in the body or in a machine: the chambers of the heart.
4. The part of a gun that holds the bullet or cartridge.
5. (plural) A judge's room for hearing cases privately, or a set of rooms used by barristers.
6. (archaic) A private room, especially a bedroom.

Verb

1. To put a bullet or cartridge into the chamber of a gun.

Word family

• chambered

Related words

• camera
• comrade
• chamberlain
• chamber pot

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press