The Russian language is a storehouse of borrowings. Foreign words slip into our speech now and then, and this is not surprising. Indeed, at different times, all the known languages of Europe influenced Russian. There are a lot of borrowings in it from French, and one of them is the word "bureau". Its significance is incomprehensible to many of our contemporaries. In this article, we learn what a bureau is and examine its etymology.
Origin of the word
This word came to us from sunny France. And there it appeared thanks to Latin. It turns out that the original meaning of the word "bureau" (French. Bureau) is associated with the old French concept of burel, descended from the late Latin burra. So in medieval France called inexpensive coarse woolen fabric. She covered the tables, protecting their surfaces from damage: the flow of wax from candles, ink stains and scratches from the feathers of inept scribes. According to another version, money changers, bankers and usurers were the first to use thick fabric. They covered her tables so that the knock of counted coins did not attract the attention of robbers and tax collectors.
Is this really a desk?
The name of the fabric gradually passed to the tables hidden under it, and they began to be called the same name - the bureau. It is worth noting that the final form of this piece of furniture acquired during the reign of Louis XIII. Then tables with a rectangular surface, one central drawer and several side ones began to be produced. Mazarin's bureau also gained fame, in which there were more than eight drawers on the sides, four on each side and several in the center under the countertop. In modern times, the number of drawers and the shape of the countertops directly depend on the desire of the customer.
Bureau as an institution
What is a bureau in furniture art, we figured it out. But how did it happen that from the name of an ordinary table a word was obtained by which reputable institutions are called? The first mention of the fact that such a bureau as a concept directly related to the place of human activity is in the Dictionary of the French Academy. Desks, according to him, have become the main piece of furniture in the cabinets. That is why they were later called the word "bureau". Thus, it began to designate a place intended for work or storage of documents. Later, people began to call them reputable institutions.
Currently, there are quite a lot of them, and each has its own type of activity. There are, for example, such bureaus:
- legal;
- transfers;
- standardization;
- design.
The first institution that we recall when we mention the word we are considering is likely to become the FBI. This world-famous organization has been operating in the United States since 1908 and is still brilliantly fulfilling its mission. The Federal Bureau of Investigation fights corruption, terrorism, industrial espionage, is engaged in the search for especially dangerous criminals and counterintelligence.
So we figured out what a bureau is. This French word passed an amazing story centuries-old - from a simple canvas, rough fabric, to the designation of solid and large institutions.