Etymologically
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chamber

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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

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