furniture

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈfɜː.nɪ.t͡ʃə/ (UK); /ˈfɝ.nɪ.t͡ʃɚ/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French fourniture (“a supply; the act of furnishing”),^[2][3][4] from Old French forneture (13th century),^[2] from furnir (“to furnish”) (see furnish).^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of fitting out or equipping: 1529 in the OED and MWU,^[6][3] the 1520s in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries it also meant decoration,^[4][6] equipment for body or mind (1560),^[6] and a stock or supply of anything.^[6] The sense of chairs, tables and other movable articles in a house is from the 1570s;^[2] Etymonline notes that it is peculiar to English, as most other European languages name furniture from Latin mobilis, movable.^[2] Other senses are the trappings of a horse,^[7] the fittings of a ship or factory, the wooden parts of a rifle, and in printing the pieces used to fill blank spaces in a forme.^[8] In Scots and northern dialect furniture was also a verb, to furnish.^[9]

Timeline

• 1529 – the action of equipping.^[6][3]
• 1560 – equipment, outfit.^[6]
• 1570s – the movable articles in a house.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The movable articles, such as chairs, tables and beds, that make a room or building fit to live or work in.
2. The equipment needed for a ship, factory or saddle horse.
3. (printing) Pieces of wood or metal used to fill the blank areas around type.
4. The characteristic attitudes or furnishings of a person's mind: mental furniture.

Word family

• furnitureless
• unfurnitured
• furniture beetle

Related words

• furnish
• furnishings
• mobile

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ 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)