bureau: [17] Etymologically, bureau seems to mean ‘red’. Its ultimate source is probably Greek purrhós ‘red’, a derivative of pur ‘fire’ (as in English pyre and pyrotechnic), which is related to English fire. This was borrowed into Latin as burrus, which developed into Old French bure ‘dark brown’. This seems to have formed the basis of a derivative burel, later bureau, meaning ‘dark brown cloth’.
This cloth was used for covering the writing surface of desks, and so eventually bureau came to mean ‘writing desk’ itself. Offices being the natural habitat of writing desks, bureau was later applied to them too. The derivative bureaucracy is 19th-century, of French origin. => pyre, pyrotechnic
bureau (n.)
1690s, "desk with drawers, writing desk," from French bureau "office; desk, writing table," originally "cloth covering for a desk," from burel "coarse woolen cloth" (as a cover for writing desks), Old French diminutive of bure "dark brown cloth," which is perhaps either from Latin burrus "red," or from Late Latin burra "wool, shaggy garment." Offices being full of such desks, the meaning expanded 1720 to "division of a government." Meaning "chest of drawers" is from 1770, said to be American English but early in British use.
雙語例句
1. the Federal Bureau of Investigation
聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局
來自《權(quán)威詞典》
2. FBI demands its employees absolute allegiance to this bureau.
聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局要求其雇員對該局絕對忠誠.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
3. The auctioneer knocked the bureau down to a furniture dealer from York.
拍賣者將寫字臺賣給從約克來的家具商.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
4. The weather bureau makes daily reports on weather conditions.
氣象局每天報告天氣狀況.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
5. The educational bureau demands that all schools introduce a new course into the curriculum.