bureau
Pronunciation
- IPA: /by.ʁo/[1]
Forms
bureau m (plural bureaux)[1] Old French burel (about 1150), nominative buriaus (1190), plural bureaux.[2][3]
Etymology
It is Old French burel, a diminutive of bure (“coarse woollen cloth”),[4][2][5][6] which may come from a Vulgar Latin “*būra”, beside Late Latin burra (“wool, shaggy cloth”) (see bourre).[4][1] Guiraud, followed by the Grand Robert, derives it instead from Old French “bur” “dark brown”, from Latin burrus (“red”), Etymonline gives both.[2][7] Bloch and Wartburg note that “bure” is recorded only from 1441, much later than its derivative.[4]
Compare Catalan burel, Spanish buriel and Italian burello.[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
Burel (about 1150) and buriaus (1190) are a coarse woollen cloth, as in the Roman de Renart and the Roman de la Rose.[2][3][8]
Semantic evolution
In the 13th century (1316 in the Petit Robert) it was a table cover made of this cloth, and in 1495 the writing table itself, Littré explains the name by the cloth that covered the table.[4][5][3] The cloth sense was already old-fashioned in the 17th century (Boileau's simple bureau).[8]
In 1592 it was the room where one has one's desk, then the place where clerks work, an administrative office and its staff (bureau de poste, 1690), and the officers of an assembly.[4][9][5] The economist Gournay (1712–1759) coined bureaucratie, whence bureaucrate (1792) and bureaucratique (1796); buraliste dates from the late 17th century.[4] Slang has burlin (1836) and burlingue (1877).[10] English bureau was borrowed in the 1690s for a writing desk, and by 1720 for an office.[7]
Timeline
- c. 1150 – Burel “coarse cloth”.[2]
- 13th century – A table cover.[4]
- 1495 – A writing table.[4]
- 1592 – The room with the desk.[4]
- 1690 – Bureau de poste.[9]
- 1690s – English bureau.[7]
- 1792 – Bureaucrate.[4]
- 1877 – Slang burlingue.[10]
Meanings
Noun
- A desk, writing table: bureau à cylindre.[5][1]
- An office, study (room): le bureau d'un avocat.[5][11]
- An office, workplace, les bureaux: the offices: aller au bureau.[11][1]
- An office, agency, department: bureau de poste, bureau de vote, bureau de tabac, bureau de change.[1][5]
- The executive committee, board (of an assembly, a party).[5][11]
- (computing) The desktop.[1]
- (obsolete) Coarse woollen cloth.[8][1]
Word family
- bureaucratie
- bureaucrate
- buraliste
- burlingue
Related words
- bourgeon
- bourre
- bure
- English bureau
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
- ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 630b
- ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
- ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
- ^ a b Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
- ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)