bureau English · revision 5370

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1699|origins=fro burel}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /ˈbjʊə.rəʊ/, /ˈbjɔː.rəʊ/, US /ˈbjʊr.oʊ/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|fr|bureau|t=office, desk; originally a cloth covering for a desk]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) from [[fro|burel|t=coarse woollen cloth]], a diminutive of bure “dark brown cloth”,^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(NODE 1998) of uncertain origin: perhaps from Latin burrus “red”, from Greek pyrrhós, or from Late Latin burra “coarse wool”.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(SOED 2002)^(NODE 1998)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A writing desk with drawers: 1699 in Barnhart, the 1690s in Etymonline, 1742 in the OED.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Because such desks were the common furniture of offices, by 1720 the word meant an office for public business, first in the London Gazette.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)^(Cresswell 2021) A chest of drawers for clothes is from 1770, said to be American though early in British use.^(Etymonline) In North America the piece of furniture is a chest of drawers rather than a desk.^(Cresswell 2021) ''Bureaucracy'' is from 1818, from French bureaucratie, a coinage of the economist Vincent de Gournay.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1699 – a writing desk.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1720 – an office.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1770 – a chest of drawers.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1818 – ''bureaucracy''.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An office or [[agency]] providing a service: ''a travel bureau''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A government department or one of its divisions.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(British)'' A writing desk with drawers.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(US)'' A [[chest of drawers]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[bureaucrat]]

+ * [[subbureau]]

+ * [[bureau de change]]

+ * [[credit bureau]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[bureaucracy]]

+ * [[bureaucratic]]

+ * [[baize]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}