# office
## English
### Etymology

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”), from opifex (“doer of work, craftsman”) + -ium (“-y”, forming actions), from op- (“work”) + -i- (connective) + -fex (combining form of faciō (“to do, to make”)). The use in reference to office software is a genericization of various proprietary program suites, such as Microsoft Office.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈɒfɪs/
* (General American, General Australian) IPA: /ˈɔfɪs/
* (cot–caught merger) IPA: /ˈɑfɪs/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Hyphenation: of‧fice
* Rhymes: -ɒfɪs

### Noun

office (plural offices)
* (religion) A ceremonial duty or service, particularly:
** 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, I. Cronicles xxix, folio xc, verso, column 2:Golde (gaue he him) […] for all maner of veſſels of euery offyce […]
** (Christianity) The authorized form of ceremonial worship of a church.
** (Christianity) Any special liturgy, as the Office for the Dead or of the Virgin.
** (Christianity) A daily service without the eucharist.
** (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.
** (Protestantism) Various prayers used with modification as a morning or evening service.
** (Christianity) Last rites.
*** 1582, The Nevv Testament of Iesus Christ: […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Rheims: Iohn Fogny, →OCLC, Iohn 12, marginalia, page 254:The deuout offices of balming and anointing the dead bodies […]
*** 1618, S. Rowlands, Sacred Memorie, section 37:To show their loue in this last office done To a dead friend.
*** 1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 318:I […] will be first to render thee the decent offices due to the dead.
** (Christianity, obsolete) Mass, (particularly) the introit sung at its beginning.
*** 1549, “Svpper of the Lorde”, in The Book of Common Prayer, page 121:The office, or Introite, (as they call it).
* A position of responsibility.
    Hypernyms: role; rank
    When the office of Secretary of State is vacant, its duties fall upon an official within the department.
    Do not conflate the officeholder with the office; the distinction sometimes matters.
** 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Romans xj:[13], folio ccxj, verso:[…] in as moche as I am the apoſtle off the gentyls I will magnify myn office […]
** 1787, United States Constitution, Article II, §1:
    I do solemnly swear... that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."
* Official position, particularly high employment within government; tenure in such a position.
    Hypernyms: role; rank
    She held office as secretary of state until she left office to run for office.
** c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 82, column 2:Fla. […] Well, would I were / Gently put out of Office, before I were forc'd out […]
** 1923, Rose Macaulay, Told by an Idiot, act III, scene xv, line 227:The Tories had been in office ten years.
* A duty, particularly owing to one's position or station; a charge, trust, or role; (obsolete, rare) moral duty.
** c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 749:Ang.... Doe you your office, or giue vp your Place, And you shall well be spar'd.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:The Sun was ſunk, and after him the Starr / Of Heſperus, whoſe Office is to bring / Twilight upon the Earth […]
** 1749, Henry Fielding, “Containing five Pages of Paper”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 6:The Antients would certainly have invoked the Goddeſs Flora for this Purpoſe, and it would have been no Difficulty for their Prieſts or Politicians to have perſuaded the People of the real Preſence of the Deity, though a plain Mortal had perſonated her, and performed her Office.
** 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume I, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 87:A woman […] might bring herself to submit to the offices of a nurse, for the sake of the provision and security of a wife.
** 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 145:[…] there I readily engaged in the office of pointing out to my friend, the certain evils of such a choice.
* (archaic) Function: anything typically done by or expected of something.
** 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:In this experiment the several intervals of the teeth of the comb do the office of so many prisms.
** 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 76:I hope you saw her petticoat, six inches deep in mud, […] and the gown which had been let down to hide it, not doing its office.
** 1971, John Needham, chapter III, in Science and Civilisation in China, page 590:These ‘Pacific boom-lateens’... are believed to derive from a kind of sprit-sail... in which the upper sprit performs the office of a more or less aft-raking mast.
** 1988, P. Fussell, Thank God for Atom Bomb, page 134:The anxious businessman will learn that in most of Southeast Asia,... presenting your business card with your left hand is an affront, every decent Moslem knowing the filthy, smelly offices you reserve that left hand for.
* (now usually in plural) A service, a kindness.
    The secretary prevailed at the negotiations through the good offices of the Freedonian ambassador.
** 1575, Elizabeth I, letter:
    ...which we have hitherto forborne to graunt... for the evell offices whiche her other Secretary did there.
** 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 1089:Bush. Thither will I with you, for little office Will the hatefull commons perfourme for vs, Except like curs to teare vs all to pieces...
** 1749, Henry Fielding, “Which concludes the first Book, with an Instance of Ingratitude, which we hope will appear unnatural”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume I, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book I, page 75:One of the Maxims which the Devil, in a late Viſit upon Earth, left to his Diſciples, is, when once you are got up, to kick the Stool from under you. In plain Engliſh, when you have made your Fortune by the good Offices of a Friend, you are adviſed to diſcard him as ſoon as you can.
** 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter XIII, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume III, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 263:I […] am sure you will be too generous to do us any ill offices.
** 1830, Joseph Smith, Doctrine and Covenants, 25:5:And the office of thy calling shall be for a comfort unto my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun., thy husband, in his afflictions, with consoling words, in the spirit of meekness.
** 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXX, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, page 359:[…] he got her slippers and took off her boots. It delighted him to perform menial offices.
* (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?"]:
* 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.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Chronicles 24:11, column 1:Now it came to paſſe that at what time the chest was brought vnto the kings office, by the hand of the Leuites […]
** 1885, The Law Times Reports, number 53, page 459:Griffith, having taken offices a few doors off, also carried on the business of a solicitor.
** 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 15:We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case.
** [1945, H. L. Mencken, The American Language, supplement 1, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →OCLC, page 503:An English lawyer, whether barrister or solicitor, never has an office, but always chambers.]
** 2013 August 3, “Revenge of the Nerds”, in The Economist, number 408:Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York, and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.
** A room, set of rooms, or building used for administration and bookkeeping.
*** 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “The Pall Mall Gazette”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC, page 347:The “Pall Mall Gazette” had its offices […] in Catherine Street […]
** 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.
** (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.
* (figuratively) The staff of such places.
    The whole office was there... well, except you, of course.
* (figuratively, in large organizations) The administrative departments housed in such places, particularly:
    He's from our public relations office.
** (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.
** (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.
** 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.
* (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.
* (UK law, historical) Clipping of inquest of office:
** 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.
* (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.
* (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.
* (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.’
* (computing) A collection of business software typically including a word processor and spreadsheet and slideshow programs.
* (obsolete) An official or group of officials; (figuratively) a personification of officeholders.
** c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:[…] For who would beare... The pangs of despiz'd loue, the lawes delay, The insolence of office... When he himselfe might his quietas make... With a bare bodkin?
** (Can we date this quote?), Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “A Very Woman”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii:Ped. Now Mr. Office: What is the Reason that your vigilant Greatness And your Wife's wonderful wiseness have lock'd up from me The way to see my Mistress? Who's Dog's dead now, That you observe these Vigils?
* (obsolete) A bodily function, (particularly) urination and defecation; an act of urination or defecation.
** c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:Cassio.... Whom I, with all the Office of my heart Intirely honour […]
** 1613, Samuel Purchas, Purchas, His Pilgrimage, page 623:Washing themselves, as they doe also after the offices of Nature.
** 1764 August 5, David Garrick, letter:
    I never, since I left England, till now, have regal'd Myself with a good house of Office... the holes in Germany are... too round, chiefly owing... to the broader bottoms of the Germans.
** 1823 August 29, [Lord Byron], Don Juan. Cantos IX.—X.—and XI., London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John Hunt, […], →OCLC, canto XI, stanza XL, page 123:The very clerks,—those somewhat dirty springs / Of office, or the House of Office […]
* (obsolete) The performance of a duty; an instance of performing a duty.
** 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, III. Kynges [1 Kings] x:[4–5], folio lviij, recto, column 2:[…] whan the Quene of riche Arabia sawe all the wyſzdome of Salomon […] ⁊ the offyces of his miniſters, and their garmentes […] ſhe wondred exceadingly […]
** 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 41:At Rome (nor think me partial to the Poor) / All Offices of ours are out of Door […]

#### Usage notes

* 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

* (religious ritual): service, divine service, religious service, liturgy
* (Catholic ritual): Divine Office, breviary, Liturgy of the Hours, liturgy of the hours, canonical hours
* (position of responsibility): See Thesaurus:office
* (place of work): workplace, workstead, practice
* (doctor's office): surgery (UK)
* (major governmental division): department, ministry, bureau
* (facilities for urination and defecation): See Thesaurus:bathroom

#### Hyponyms

* (position of responsibility): See Thesaurus:office
* (site of non-manual work): ticket office, box office (selling tickets); post office (governmental mail services)

#### Derived terms

* 610 Office
* back office
* booking office
* box office
* box-office
* box-office bomb
* branch office
* circumlocution office
* coach-office
* coffice
* color of office
* corner office
* dead letter office
* die in office
* divine office
* Divine Office
* do a land-office business
* doctor's office
* drawing office
* express office
* find an office
* fire office
* fiscal office
* front office
* garden office
* general office
* gingerbread-office
* gingerbread office
* give the office
* good offices
* great office of state
* Gretzky's office
* head office
* hoffice
* hold office
* Holy Office
* home office
* house of office
* ill offices
* in office
* in-office imaging
* inquest of office
* insurance office
* intelligence office
* interoffice
* intraoffice
* jack-in-office
* kind offices
* last offices
* leave office
* left-luggage office
* little office
* man of office
* Met Office
* middle office
* nonoffice
* oath of office
* office automation
* office badge
* office bell
* office block
* office book
* office-bound
* office boy
* office building
* office chair
* office cleaner
* office clerk
* office copy
* office desk
* office door
* office-drawing
* office drone
* office duty
* office-duty
* office equipment
* office expenses
* office-fellow
* officefellow
* office floor plate
* Office for Baptism
* Office for the Dead
* Office for the Visitation of the Sick
* office found
* officeful
* office furniture
* Officegate
* office girl
* office giver
* office-giver
* office-goer
* officegoer
* office holder
* office-holder
* office holding
* officeholding
* office-holding
* office hours
* office-house
* office-hunter
* office-hunting
* office hymn
* office job
* office jobbing
* office junior
* office keeper
* office-keeper
* office lady
* office landscape
* officeless
* officelike
* office machine
* office manager
* office mate
* office-mongering
* office mongering
* office name
* office of ease
* office of kindness
* office of the mass
* Office of the Virgin
* office paper
* office park
* office party
* office patient
* office pen
* office piano
* office plankton
* office politics
* office pool
* office routine
* officescape
* office seeker
* officeseeker
* office-seeker
* office-seeking
* officeseeking
* office seeking
* officeship
* office staff
* office stool
* office suite
* officetel
* office tower
* office up
* office wall
* office-wall
* officeward
* officewear
* officewide
* office wife
* office wire
* office work
* office worker
* officey
* officiant
* officious
* of office
* OL
* out of office
* out-of-office
* paperless office
* patent office
* pay office
* pipe office
* poison at the box office
* police office
* post office
* post-office box
* post office box
* post-office order
* post office order
* press office
* public office
* rat printing office
* register office
* registry office
* return an office
* say office
* seek office
* shoffice
* shopoffice
* sick office syndrome
* sorting office
* suboffice
* take an office
* take office
* take the office
* tax office
* telegraph office
* ticket office
* tourist office
* travelling post office
* usual office
* victualling-office

#### Related terms

* officeholder
* officer
* official
* officiate

#### Descendants

* Tok Pisin: opis
* → Belarusian: о́фіс (ófis)
* → Bulgarian: о́фис (ófis)
* → Cebuano: opis
* → Chichewa: ofesi
* → Central Dusun: upis
* → Iban: opis
* → Japanese: オフィス
* → Marshallese: wōpij
* → Malay: opis
* → Russian: о́фис (ófis)
* → Scottish Gaelic: oifis
* → Swahili: afisi
* → Tausug: upis
* → Ukrainian: о́фіс (ófis)

#### Translations
### Verb

office (third-person singular simple present offices, present participle officing, simple past and past participle officed)
* To provide (someone) with an office.
** 1966, United States. Congress. Senate, Hearings - Volume 8‎, page 451:Is he officed in Congressional Relations or is he officed in SCA?
** 1976, General Technical Report RM.‎, 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.
* (intransitive) To have an office.
** 1988 December 2, Grant Pick, “He Survived Operation Greylord”, in Chicago Reader‎:"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

* ↑ Oxford English Dictionary. "office, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2004.
* ↑ Oxford English Dictionary. "† opifice, n."
* ↑ 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

* coiffe

## French
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin officium.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɔ.fis/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

office m (plural offices)
* charge, task, mandate
* administrative bureau, department
* religious service, notably liturgical office

#### Derived terms

* couteau d’office
* faire office de
* office des Grandes Heures
* office de tourisme

### Noun

office f (plural offices)
* pantry, room adjoining a kitchen where dishes, table linens, and provisions are kept
    Il avait trouvé dans l’office un saucisson, des boîtes de sardines, du fromage de Hollande.He had found in the pantry a sausage, some tins of sardines, and some Dutch cheese
* place where a household's table (food and drink)-related services are conducted, especially by domestic staff

### References

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

### Further reading

* “office”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Anagrams

* coiffe, coiffé

## Latin
### Verb

office
* second-person singular present active imperative of officiō

### Noun

office
* ablative singular of offex

## Middle English
### Etymology 1

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

#### Alternative forms

* offiz, offis, offyce, ofys, offise, ofice, offece, offys

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɔˈfiːs(ə)/, /ˈɔfis(ə)/

#### Noun

office (plural offices)
* The state of being employed or having a work or job; employment:
** Ecclesiastical or religious work; a church career.
** (rare) Unskilled work; any work that is unimportant or base.
* A position of responsibility or control; a crucial occupation:
** c. 1300, St. Thomas Becket, ll. 244 ff.
    Þis holi Man was i-torned... To a gret office of þe world.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
** A clerical or church post or position; a religious office.
** A governmental or administrative position or post; a political office.
*** c. 1300, St. Thomas Becket, ll. 223 ff.
    He cam to court and was in guod offiz With þe erchebischop of Kaunterburi.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
** The situation, status, or rank one has in the wider world or within society.
* A task, chore or assignment, especially one which is important or required; an obligation:
** c. 1330, Lai le Freine:Þe porter of þe abbay... dede his ofice in þe clos.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
** The role, purpose, or intended use or utility of something (especially a bodily part).
*** c. 1380, Boethius, translated by Geoffrey Chaucer, Boece:Sche say me... withouten office of tunge and al dowmb.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
*** c. 1390, John Gower, Confessio Amantis, Book VII, ll. 467 ff.:
    As it is in Phisique write Of livere, of lunge, of galle, of splen, Thei alle unto the herte ben Servantz, and ech in his office Entendeth to don him service.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
*** c. 1395, Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Tale of the Wyf of Bathe" in Tales of Caunterbury, ll. 127 ff.:
    Membres of generacioun... maked been for bothe; That is to seye, for office and for ese Of engendrure.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
** A task or function that one organ does to assist another or the body as a whole.
*** 1340, Ayenbite:Þe mouþ heþ tuo offices, huer-of þe on belongeþ to þe zuelȝ... Þe oþer zuo is in speche.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
** A religious ceremony or ritual; a task performed for religious reasons.
*** a. 1300, Arthour & Merlin, ll. 2758 ff.:
    Þe holy bischop... For him dede þe office; In erþe he was sikerliche Layd swiþe nobeliche.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
** (Christianity) The beginning or the initial portion of the Eucharist.
*** c. 1300, St. Thomas Becket, ll. 942 ff.:
    He song þulke masse ilome, for al-so heo bi-ginnez Þe furste offiz is propre inov to þe stat þat he was Inne.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
** A core human faculty (e.g. movement, talking, literacy)
* A part, faculty, or division of a larger body:
** A part of a house or estate devoted to manual work and storage.
*** a. 1422, petition, P.R.O. 117, 5842:
    ... Abbeyes, Priories, hospitals, chaunteries and chappels, chaces, parkes, offices, milnes, weres...(please add an English translation of this quotation)
** A part or subdivision of an estate devoted to a specified function.
** (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)
* An inquest undertaken to investigate the possession of land or property.
** 1432, petition, P.R.O. 26, 1259:
    Of the whiche Maner the seyd Oratrice... be an Offyce was put out.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
* The intended or ideal working or operation of something.
* An officeholder invested with powers and authority.
** c. 1440, Christine de Pisan, translated by Stephen Scrope, The Epistle of Othea, page 85:He pleide so sweetly þat... alle þe helly offices lefte there besinesses.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
* (rare) A building or structure used for business purposes; an office.
** c. 1395, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Freres Tale”, in Tales of Caunterbury:...I wol han .xij. pens, though that she be wood, Or I wol sompne hir vn to our office...(please add an English translation of this quotation)
** 1440, Promptorium Parvulorum, page 363:Offyce, or place of offyce, officina.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
* (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)
* (rare) The activities typical of and concomitant to one's place in society.
* (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.)‎, 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 godAs 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

* officen
* officer
* official

##### Descendants

* English: office
* Scots: office, offish

##### References

* “offī̆ce, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-03-17.

### Etymology 2

From Old French officier.

#### Verb

office
* Alternative form of officen

## Norman
### Noun

office m (plural offices)
* (Jersey) office
** 2010, Mêfie-té des Monstres: Tchiques légendes dé Jèrri, Jersey: Le Don Balleine, L'Office du Jèrriais, →ISBN:L'Office du JèrriaisThe Office of Jèrriais

## Old French
### Noun

office oblique singular, m (oblique plural offices, nominative singular offices, nominative plural office)
* office (building; room)
* office (position, role, job)
* service

#### Descendants

* French: office

### References

* office on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub