commode

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from French commode, a noun use of the adjective commode, "convenient, suitable",^[2][3][4][5] from Latin commodus (“proper, fit, convenient”),^[3][2][6] formed from com- and modus (“measure, manner”),^[3][7][5] from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to take appropriate measures”).^[3] Etymonline takes com- here as perhaps an intensive prefix.^[3] The obsolete adjective is partly borrowed from Middle French commode (“easy, convenient”), recorded from 1475, and partly directly from commodus.^[2] The verb, rare in English, is borrowed from Latin commodāre (“to lend, provide, suit”), itself from commodus.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, "convenient, suitable": 1549, in a letter by W. Paget.^[2] As a noun, a woman's tall headdress: before 1687, in the works of the Duke of Buckingham,^[2] which Barnhart gives as before 1688, Etymonline as the 1680s and Merriam-Webster Unabridged as about 1688.^[8][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The noun came in as the name of a fashionable headdress, a tall wire frame covered with silk or lace.^[2][3] French records this sense only from 1704, although the English quotation suggests that it is older.^[2] Johnson (1755) knows no other sense,^[9] and a song of 1719 in Wit and Mirth says "on my head a huge commode sat cocking".^[3] French also used the noun for a woman who acted as go-between in an affair, and English had the sense "procuress" from 1725 to 1765.^[2][5] The chest of drawers, French from 1708, is recorded in English in 1754, in Chippendale's Director,^[2] while Barnhart and Etymonline first find it in 1786.^[8][3] The sense of a piece of furniture hiding a chamber pot, and then the North American euphemism for a toilet, appear to be English innovations,^[2] from the notion of convenience.^[3][8] The OED has the first from 1802,^[2] and Barnhart and Etymonline from 1851.^[8][3] The adjective, which could be used disparagingly of an obliging person, died out in the 18th century,^[2][4][5] and the verb, recorded from 1636, is now rare or archaic.^[2]

Timeline

• 1549 – adjective, convenient, suitable (obsolete after 1790).^[2]
• 1636 – verb, to equip a building with something suitable (obsolete after 1694).^[2]
• 1674 – adjective, of a person, acquiescent, accommodating (obsolete after 1785).^[2]
• before 1687 – noun, a woman's tall headdress.^[2][8]
• 1725 – a procuress, in Cibber (obsolete after 1765).^[2]
• 1754 – a chest of drawers or cabinet for a bedroom or drawing room.^[2]
• 1802 – a piece of furniture concealing a chamber pot.^[2]
• 1958 – chiefly North American, a toilet.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A low, often ornate chest of drawers or cabinet, especially of the 18th-century French kind: A gilded commode stood between the two windows.^{[10][5][2][4]}
2. A movable washstand or bedside cabinet with a cupboard underneath.^[5][10]
3. A chair or similar piece of furniture holding a chamber pot under the seat.^[10][5][2]
4. (chiefly North American, euphemistic) A toilet.^[2][5]
5. (historical) A woman's headdress of lace and ribbons over a high wire frame, worn in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.^[5][10][2]
6. (obsolete, 1725–65) A bawd or procuress.^[2][5]

Adjective

1. (obsolete, 1549–1790) Convenient, suitable.^[2][5][4]
2. (obsolete, 1674–1785) Of a person, accommodating or too compliant.^[2][5][4]

Related words

• accommodation
• commodious
• discommode
• incommode
• accommodate
• commodity
• mode

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins