office

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English[edit]

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An office, with a desk, typewriter and clerk. (1939)

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English office, from Old French office, from Latin officium (“personal, official, or moral duty; official position; function; ceremony, esp. last rites”), contracted from opificium (“construction: the act of building or the thing built”),[1] from opifex (“doer of work, craftsman”) + -ium (“-y: forming actions”),[2] from op- (“base of opus: work”) + -i- (“connective”) + -fex (“combining form of facere: to do, to make”).[3]

Use in reference to office software is a genericization of various proprietary program suites, such as Microsoft Office.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

office (plural offices)

  1. (religion) A ceremonial duty or service, particularly:
    1. (Christianity) The authorized form of ceremonial worship of a church.
    2. (Christianity) Any special liturgy, as the Office for the Dead or of the Virgin.
    3. (Christianity) A daily service without the eucharist.
    4. (Catholicism) The daily service of the breviary, the liturgy for each canonical hour, including psalms, collects, and lessons.
      In the Latin rite, all bishops, priests, and transitional deacons are obliged to recite the Divine Office daily.
      • 1674, Richard Strange, The Life and Gests of S. Thomas Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford, page 287:
        His spirituall exercises were chiefly Prayer, the H. Sacrifice of Masse, his Canonicall Houres or diuine Office.
    5. (Protestantism) Various prayers used with modification as a morning or evening service.
    6. (Christianity) Last rites.
    7. (Christianity, obsolete) Mass, (particularly) the introit sung at its beginning.
  2. A position of responsibility.
    When the office of Secretary of State is vacant, its duties fall upon an official within the department.
  3. Official position, particularly high employment within government; tenure in such a position.
    She held office as secretary of state until she left office to run for office.
  4. A duty, particularly owing to one's position or station; a charge, trust, or role; (obsolete, rare) moral duty.
  5. (archaic) Function: anything typically done by or expected of something.
  6. (now usually in plural) A service, a kindness.
    The secretary prevailed at the negotiations through the good offices of the Freedonian ambassador.
  7. (figuratively, slang) Inside information.
    • 1803, Sporting Magazine, number 21, page 327:
      Giving the office—is when you suffer any person, who may stand behind your chair, to look over your hand.
    • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Where Silas Linden Comes into His Own”, in The Land of Mist, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, published 1926, →OCLC, " [… What is there for me in it?" "Not a shilling." "What? Wasn't it I that gave the information? Where would you have been if I had not given you the office?"/mode/1up page " […] What is there for me in it?" "Not a shilling." "What? Wasn't it I that gave the information? Where would you have been if I had not given you the office?"]:
  8. A room, set of rooms, or building used for non-manual work, particularly:
    The office of the Secretary of State is cleaned when it is vacant.
    1. A room, set of rooms, or building used for administration and bookkeeping.
    2. A room, set of rooms, or building used for selling services or tickets to the public.
      • 1819 September 22, John Keats, letter to Reynolds:
        There will be some of the family waiting for you at the coach-office.
    3. (chiefly US, medicine) A room, set of rooms, or building used for consultation and diagnosis, but not surgery or other major procedures.
      • 1975, M. Duke, chapter VIII, in Death of Holy Murderer, page 108:
        This one was made out at a private office—Office is American for Surgery.
  9. (figuratively) The staff of such places.
    The whole office was there... well, except you, of course.
  10. (figuratively, in large organizations) The administrative departments housed in such places, particularly:
    He's from our public relations office.
    1. (UK, Australia, usually capitalized, with clarifying modifier) A ministry or other department of government.
      The secretary of state's British colleague heads the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
    2. (Catholicism, usually capitalized) Short for Holy Office: the court of final appeal in cases of heresy.
      • 1642, J. Howell, chapter X, in Forraine Travell, page 131:
        A Biscayner is capable to be a Cavalier of any of the three habits without any scrutiny to be made of the Office, whether he be, limpio de la sangre de los Moros, that is cleare of the bloud of the Moores or no.
      • 1658, Pilgrim's Book, page 3:
        They abiured their Heresy bublikly [sic] before the Commissary of the holy office.
    3. A particular place of business of a larger white-collar business.
      He worked as the receptionist at the Akron office.
      • 1647, W. Bridge, Saints Hiding-place, page 17:
        But there is an Insuring-Office set up in the Gospel, as to the venture of our eternities.
      • 1732, Benjamin Franklin, Proposals & Queries to be Asked the Junto:
        Would not an Office of Insurance for Servants be of Service, and what Methods are proper for the erecting such an Office?
      • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XVII, in Emma: […], volume II, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 324:
        […] there are advertising offices, and […] by applying to them I should have no doubt of very soon meeting with something that would do.
      • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XII, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 204:
        […] a large Danish sun or star hanging round his neck by a blue ribbon […] had given him the appearance of being insured in some extraordinary Fire Office.
  11. (now in the plural, dated) The parts of a house or estate devoted to manual work and storage, as the kitchen, scullery, laundry, stables, etc., particularly (euphemistic, dated) a house or estate's facilities for urination and defecation: outhouses or lavatories.
    • 1720, William Willymott translating Francis Bacon as "Of Building" in Lord Bacons Essays, Vol. I, page 283:
      As for the Offices, let them stand at some Distance from the House, with some low covered Galleries, to pass from them to the Palace it self.
    • 1727, The Grand Mystery:
      ... proposals for erecting 500 Publick Offices of Ease in London and Westminster...
    • 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter III, in A Study in Scarlet:
      A short passage, bare planked and dusty, led to the kitchen and offices.
    • 1957, Emyr Estyn Evans, chapter VIII, in Irish Folk Ways, page 112:
      Only in planted areas does one find old examples of planned ‘courtyard farms’ where the house and offices enclose a square or rectangular yard.
    • 1957, John Braine, chapter I, in Room at Top, page 13:
      The bathroom's to the right and the usual offices next to it.
    • 1980, William Golding, chapter I, in Rites of Passage, page 6:
      Aft of the lobby... is the dining saloon for the passengers with the offices of necessity on either side of it.
  12. (UK law, historical) Clipping of inquest of office: an inquest undertaken on occasions when the Crown claimed the right of possession to land or property.
    • 1768, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, volume III, page 259:
      If they find the treason or felony... of the party accused... the king is thereupon, by virtue of this office found, intitled to have his forfeitures.
    • 1977, John McDonald Burke, Jowitt's Dictionary of English Law, volume I, page 280:
      If the Crown claimed the land of an idiot, the person had first to be found an idiot by office.
  13. (obsolete) A piece of land used for hunting; the area of land overseen by a gamekeeper.
    • 1617, Nicholas Assheton, Journal, page 60:
      All hunt in James Whitendales office.
  14. (figuratively, slang, obsolete) A hangout: a place where one is normally found.
    • 1699, A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew:
      His Office, any Man's ordinary Haunt, or Plying-place, be it Tavern, Ale-house, Gaming-house.
  15. (UK military slang, dated) A plane's cockpit, particularly an observer's cockpit.
    • 1917, Alan Bott, An Airman's Outings, page 161:
      I withdraw into ‘the office’, otherwise the observer's cockpit.
    • 1941 March 24, Life, page 85:
      In the slang of the Royal Air Force man, the cockpit of his plane is the ‘pulpit’ or ‘office’, the glass covering over it the ‘greenhouse’.
    • 1966 May 13, New Statesman, page 687:
      ‘Up in the office they too knew it.’ ‘The office? You mean the flight deck?’ ‘Just that. No more. No less. The office.’
  16. (computing) A collection of business software typically including a word processor and spreadsheet and slideshow programs.
  17. (obsolete) An official or group of officials; (figuratively) a personification of officeholders.
  18. (obsolete) A bodily function, (particularly) urination and defecation; an act of urination or defecation.
  19. (obsolete) The performance of a duty; an instance of performing a duty.

Usage notes[edit]

In reference to professional services, the term office is used with somewhat greater scope in American English, which speaks of doctor's offices etc., where British English generally prefers particular words such as surgery.

Synonyms[edit]

Hyponyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • Tok Pisin: opis
  • → Bulgarian: о́фис (ófis)
  • → Cebuano: opis
  • → Iban: opis
  • → Marshallese: wōpij
  • → Russian: о́фис (ófis)
  • → Swahili: afisi

Translations[edit]

kindness — see good offices

Verb[edit]

office (third-person singular simple present offices, present participle officing, simple past and past participle officed)

  1. To provide (someone) with an office.
    • 1966, United States. Congress. Senate, Hearings - Volume 8‎[1], page 451:
      Is he officed in Congressional Relations or is he officed in SCA?
    • 1976, General Technical Report RM.‎[2], page 128:
      Prior to that time, Station personnel were first officed in temporary wartime barracks on the campus and then on the second floor of the Journalism Building.
  2. (intransitive) To have an office.
    • 1988 December 2, Grant Pick, “He Survived Operation Greylord”, in Chicago Reader‎[3]:
      "I believed that Dave was just doing a favor for his brother," said Somerville, who added that he assumed Lou and Dave officed together.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary. "office, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2004.
  2. ^ Oxford English Dictionary. "† opifice, n."
  3. ^ Oxford English Dictionary. "opifex, n."
  • Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 7th ed. "office". G. & C. Merriam Co. (Springfield), 1967.
  • The Century Dictionary. "office". The Century Co. (New York), 1911.

Anagrams[edit]

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin officium.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

office m (plural offices)

  1. charge, task, mandate
  2. administrative bureau, department
  3. religious service, notably liturgical office
  4. place where a household's table (food and drink)-related services are conducted, especially by domestic staff
    Il avait trouvé dans l’office un saucisson, des boîtes de sardines, du fromage de Hollande.
    (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Derived terms[edit]

References[edit]

  • Nouveau Petit Larousse illustré. Dictionnaire encyclopédique. Paris, Librairie Larousse, 1952, 146th edition

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Latin[edit]

Verb[edit]

office

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of officiō

Noun[edit]

office

  1. ablative singular of offex

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Old French office, from Latin officium, contracted form of opificium.

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ɔˈfiːs(ə)/, /ˈɔfis(ə)/

Noun[edit]

office (plural offices)

  1. The state of being employed or having a work or job; employment:
    1. Ecclesiastical or religious work; a church career.
    2. (rare) Unskilled work; any work that is unimportant or base.
  2. A position of responsibility or control; a crucial occupation:
    1. A clerical or church post or position; an religious office.
    2. A governmental or administrative position or post; a political office.
    3. The situation, status, or rank one has in the wider world or within society.
  3. A task, chore or assignment, especially one which is important or required; an obligation:
    1. The role, purpose, or intended use or utility of something (especially a bodily part).
    2. A task or function that one organ does to assist another or the body as a whole.
    3. A religious ceremony or ritual; a task performed for religious reasons.
    4. (Christianity) The beginning or the initial portion of the Eucharist.
    5. A core human faculty (e.g. movement, talking, literacy)
  4. A part, faculty, or division of a larger body:
    1. A part of a house or estate devoted to manual work and storage.
    2. A part or subdivision of an estate devoted to a specified function.
    3. (rare) A part or subdivision of a government devoted to a specified function.
      • 1435, petition, P.R.O. 130, 6460A:
        John Duc of Bedford... Admirall of England in the office of þe admiralte in the Countees of Kent, Sussex...
        (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  5. An inquest undertaken to investigate the possession of land or property.
  6. The intended or ideal working or operation of something.
  7. An officeholder invested with powers and authority.
  8. (rare) A building or structure used for business purposes; an office.
  9. (rare) The process or undertaking of a task or assignment.
    • c. 1300, The Romance of Sir Beues of Hamtoun, ll. 3555 ff.:
      While Beues was in þat office,
      Þe kinges sone...
      A ȝede to Beves stable.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  10. (rare) The activities typical of and concomitant to one's place in society.
  11. (rare) A favour; a beneficial deed or act.
    • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎[4], published c. 1410, Coꝛinthis ·ii· 9:12, page 70v, column 2; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:
      foꝛ þe mynyſterie of þis office. not oneli filliþ þoo þingis þat failen to hooli men .· but alſo multeplieþ many þankyngis to god
      As the administering of this favour doesn't just supply the things that holy men are lacking, but also overflows in many thanks to God.
Related terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Old French officier.

Verb[edit]

office

  1. Alternative form of officen

Norman[edit]

Noun[edit]

office m (plural offices)

  1. (Jersey) office
    • 2010, Mêfie-té des Monstres: Tchiques légendes dé Jèrri, Jersey: Le Don Balleine, L'Office du Jèrriais, →ISBN:
      L'Office du Jèrriais
      The Office of Jèrriais

Old French[edit]

Noun[edit]

office oblique singular, m (oblique plural offices, nominative singular offices, nominative plural office)

  1. office (building; room)
  2. office (position, role, job)
  3. service

Descendants[edit]

References[edit]

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