bureau

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A government department or office that deals with a particular task.

   She works for the federal bureau of statistics.

2. 2
   noun

   An office that collects or provides information or a service.

   They booked the trip through a local travel bureau.

3. 3
   noun

   A chest of drawers, or a writing desk with drawers.

   He kept his socks in the top drawer of the bureau.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Bureau comes from French bureau, originally the name of the baize cloth used to cover a writing desk and probably related to buire, “dark brown.” The word then named the desk itself and, by association, an office containing desks. It entered English in the late 17th or early 18th century and later developed the North American sense “chest of drawers.”

Unadapted borrowing from French bureau, earlier "coarse cloth (as desk cover), baize", from Old French burel (“woolen cloth”), diminutive of *bure (compare Middle French bure (“coarse woolen cloth”), French bourre (“hair, fluff”)), from Late Latin burra (“wool, fluff, shaggy cloth, coarse fabric”); akin to Ancient Greek βερβέριον (berbérion, “shabby garment”). Doublet of burel and borrel, taken from Old French.

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary