Word of the DayThursday, August 30, 2001
billet
\BIL-it\ , noun:1.
Lodging for soldiers.
2.
An official order directing that a soldier be provided with lodging.
3.
A position of employment; a job.
1.
To quarter, or place in lodgings.
2.
To serve (a person) with an official order to provide lodging for soldiers.
1.
To be quartered; to lodge.
Quotes:
When he was well enough, he was retrieved back to his billet in the American zone.
-- Frances Stonor Saunders, The Cultural Cold War
Louisa stayed at the hospital to be near him, while the younger children were billeted at a nearby house with their Irish governess.
-- Douglas Botting, Gerald Durrell
We arrived jet-lagged at Tan Son Nhut airport where someone met us and hurried us off to wherever we were billeted, usually a villa on one of the wide residential boulevards that reminded everyone of a French provincial city.
-- Ward Just, A Dangerous Friend
Origin:
Billet is from Medieval French billette, from Old French bullette, diminutive of bulle, "a document," from Medieval Latin bulla, "a document."
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