Etymologically
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davenport

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 22:54. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈdævənpɔːt/[1]

Etymology

It is probably named from English after a person called Davenport.[2][3][4][5] For the writing desk, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English name a Captain Davenport, for whom early examples were made in the late 18th century;[3][4] Collins and Dictionary.com say only that the desk is said to be named after him.[6][7] Etymonline, Barnhart, Hoad, Klein and Weekley take it from the maker's name,[5][8][9][10][11] and Weekley compares chippendale and tilbury.[11] For the sofa the OED and the Oxford Dictionary of English suggest, with less certainty, a manufacturer's name,[2][4] and the American Heritage Dictionary names the A. H. Davenport Company, a 19th-century furniture maker in Boston.[12] Partridge likewise derives the desk from a cabinet-maker in England and the sofa from an American furniture-maker,[13] while Merriam-Webster calls the word of unknown origin.[14] The surname comes from Davenport in Cheshire,[15][16][5] a town on the river Dane;[17] Etymonline records the proper name from the 12th century,[5] and an early bearer is Richard de Deveneport, recorded in Cheshire in 1162–73.[15][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small ornamental writing table or escritoire fitted with drawers: the OED's first quotation is from 1853, in the Practical Mechanic's Journal,[2] the date also given by Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster.[5][8][14]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a small desk with drawers and a hinged, sloping writing surface, and in this sense it is chiefly British.[6][4] In American use it came to mean a large upholstered sofa, often one that can be made into a bed: Etymonline dates this sense to 1897,[5] the year of the OED's first quotation, a Washington Post advertisement,[2] and Barnhart cites the "Davenport Bed Couch" of a 1902 Sears catalogue.[8] The OED compares chesterfield.[2] The sofa sense is North American,[6][4] and the Shorter Oxford dates it to the mid 20th century.[3] A separate Davenport, with a capital, names the china and earthenware made by the Davenport family at Longport, Staffordshire, between 1793 and 1882.[2][3]

Timeline

  • 1853 – a small writing desk with drawers.[2][5][14]
  • 1897 – a large upholstered sofa (American).[2][5]
  • 1902 – the Davenport Bed Couch in a Sears catalogue.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly British) A small ornamental writing desk with drawers at the side and a sloping, hinged top: She kept her letters in the drawers of an old davenport.[6][4][14][2]
  2. (US and Canada) A large upholstered sofa, often one that can be converted into a bed.[6][4][14][2]
  • chesterfield
  • escritoire

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  14. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  15. ^ a b Reaney, P. H.; Wilson, R. M. (1991), A Dictionary of English Surnames, 3rd ed., London: Routledge
  16. ^ a b Hanks, Patrick; Coates, Richard; McClure, Peter, eds. (2016), The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ Smith, Elsdon C. (1973), New Dictionary of American Family Names, New York: Harper & Row