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bu⋅reau

  [byoor-oh]
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–noun, plural bu⋅reaus, bu⋅reaux  [byoor-ohz] .
1. a chest of drawers, often with a mirror at the top.
2. a division of a government department or an independent administrative unit.
3. an office for collecting or distributing news or information, coordinating work, or performing specified services; agency: a travel bureau; a news bureau.
4. Chiefly British. a desk or writing table with drawers for papers.
Origin:
1710–20; < F: desk, office, orig. a kind of cloth (used to cover desks, etc.), AF, OF burel, equiv. to bur- (prob. < *būra, var. of LL burra wool, fluff; cf. bourrée) + -el n. suffix
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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bu·reau   (byŏŏr'ō)   
n.   pl. bu·reaus or bu·reaux (-ōz)
  1. A chest of drawers, especially a dresser for holding clothes.
  2. Chiefly British A writing desk or writing table with drawers.
    1. A government department or a subdivision of a department.
    2. An office, usually of a large organization, that is responsible for a specific duty: a news bureau.
    3. A business that offers information of a specified kind: a travel bureau.

[French, cloth cover for desks, desk, office, from Old French burel, woolen cloth, probably from Vulgar Latin *būra, from Late Latin burra, shaggy garment.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Bureau

Bu"reau\, n.; pl. E. Bureaus, F. Bureaux. [F. bureau a writing table, desk, office, OF., drugget, with which a writing table was often covered, equiv. to F. bure, and fr. OF. buire dark brown, the stuff being named from its color, fr. L. burrus red, fr. Gr. ? flame-colored, prob. fr. ? fire. See Fire, n., and cf. Borel, n.]

1. Originally, a desk or writing table with drawers for papers. --Swift.

2. The place where such a bureau is used; an office where business requiring writing is transacted.

3. Hence: A department of public business requiring a force of clerks; the body of officials in a department who labor under the direction of a chief.

Note: On the continent of Europe, the highest departments, in most countries, have the name of bureaux; as, the Bureau of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In England and America, the term is confined to inferior and subordinate departments; as, the "Pension Bureau," a subdepartment of the Department of the Interior. [Obs.] In Spanish, bureo denotes a court of justice for the trial of persons belonging to the king's household.

4. A chest of drawers for clothes, especially when made as an ornamental piece of furniture. [U.S.]

Bureau system. See Bureaucracy.

Bureau Veritas, an institution, in the interest of maritime underwriters, for the survey and rating of vessels all over the world. It was founded in Belgium in 1828, removed to Paris in 1830, and re["e]stablished in Brussels in 1870.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : Bureau
Spanish: escritorio,
German: das Schreibpult,
Japanese: 引き出し付の机
More Translations »

bureau 
1699, from Fr. bureau "office, desk," originally "cloth covering for a desk," from burel "coarse woolen cloth" (as a cover for writing desks), dim. of O.Fr. bure "dark brown cloth," which is perhaps either from L. burrus "red," or from L.L. burra "wool, shaggy garment." Offices being full of such desks, the meaning expanded 1720 to "division of a government."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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bureau

in the United States, a chest of drawers; in Europe a writing desk, usually with a hinged writing flap that rests at a sloping angle when closed and, when opened, reveals a tier of pigeonholes, small drawers, and sometimes a small cupboard. The bureau (French: "office") first appeared in France at the beginning of the 17th century as just a flat table with drawers below the top, the bureau plat. By Louis XIV's reign, a kneehole type was in use, with a tier of drawers on each side and a single drawer in the centre above a space for the knees.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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