Etymologically
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chest

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /tʃest/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cheste, inherited from Old English ċest, ċist (“box, coffer, casket”),[2][3][4] an early Germanic borrowing (Proto-Germanic *kistō)[4] from Latin cista (“box, basket”),[2][3] from Ancient Greek κίστη (kístē, “box, basket”),[2][3] from PIE *kistā “woven container”, also the source of Old Irish cess “basket”.[3][2] The same Latin word gave Old Norse and Old High German kista and Dutch kist.[3][4] It is related to cistern.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A box or coffer: about 700 in the OED and Barnhart.[6][3] A coffin is also Old English (about 890), and is still used in dialect;[6][7] Trench quotes the Bible's “he dieth, and is chested” of Joseph.[8]

Semantic evolution

The part of the body enclosed by the ribs is recorded from about 1400 in Etymonline and 1530 in Barnhart, in Palsgrave,[2][3] with figurative uses as early as Chaucer (1385);[3] the image is of the ribs as a box for the heart and lungs.[2][5] It replaced breast in this sense.[2] The common chest, where public money was kept (mid-15th century), gave “public funds” in the 1580s.[2] A sailor's chest is from 1615, a chest of drawers from the 1670s,[6][2] and a large case for tea or other goods from 1708.[6] The verb, to put in a coffin, is from 1473.[6]

Timeline

  • a. 700 – a box.[6]
  • c. 890 – a coffin.[6]
  • c. 1400 – the thorax.[2]
  • 1473 – verb, to put in a coffin.[6]
  • 1530 – the thorax, in Palsgrave.[3]
  • 1580s – public funds.[2]
  • 1670s – chest of drawers.[2]
  • 1708 – a case for goods such as tea.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The front of the body between the neck and the stomach, enclosed by the ribs; the thorax.
  2. A large strong box with a lid, used for storing things.
  3. A box for keeping money, or the money of an organization.
  4. A chest of drawers.

Word family

  • chested
  • chestful
  • windchest
  • chesty
  • chest-thumping
  • blanket chest
  • Hadley chest
  • chest of drawers
  • cistern
  • cist
  • breast

Usage notes

A different Old English word, chest or chease, meaning strife or quarrelling, is now obsolete.[6]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  8. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker