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bureau

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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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Word Origin & History

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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Encyclopedia

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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