Etymograph

English

bureau

Bureau is borrowed (uncertainly) from French bureau, originally ‘baize desk cover’, from Old French burel ‘woolen cloth’, from Late Latin burra.

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEburra‘wool, shaggy cloth’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400*burereconstructed
  3. Old French, derivedc. 842–1400burel‘woolen cloth’
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentbureau‘desk; office’uncertain
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2010bureau

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEburra‘wool, shaggy cloth’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400*burereconstructed
  3. Old French, derivedc. 842–1400burel‘woolen cloth’
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentbureau‘desk; office’uncertain
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2010bureau

Earliest quotation: 2010, Ellie Nielsen, Buying a Piece of Paris: A Memoir: “Both my ability to comprehend what is being said…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *péh₂wr̥ ‘fire’

fire, poppy, fiery, 15 more

through Proto-Hellenic *pāwər

pyroclastic, 12 more

through Ancient Greek πῦρ ‘a funerary fire’

bertram, pyro, pyrite, pyre, 13 more

through Latin burrus ‘flushed, red’

burrito, burro, 1 more

through Latin burra

burlesque, burl

Today it means

noun An administrative unit of government; office.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Late Latin burra / bureau

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