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单词 office
释义

office

See also: 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”),[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

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

Noun

office (plural offices)

  1. (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 J. Soter?], OCLC 79441532, I. Cronicles xxix, folio xc, verso, column 2:
      Golde (gaue he him) […] for all maner of veſſels of eueryoffyce […]
    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. (Protestant) Various prayers used with modification as a morning or evening service.
    6. (Christianity) Last rites.
      • 1582, The Nevv Testament of Iesus Christ: […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Rheims: Iohn Fogny, OCLC 314690970, Iohn 12, marginalia, page 254:
        The deuoutoffices of balming and anointing the dead bodies […]
      • 1618, S. Rowlands, Sacred Memorie, 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 277973588, page 318:
        I […] will be first to render thee the decent offices due to the dead.
    7. (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).
  2. A position of responsibility.
    When the office of Secretary of State is vacant, its duties fall upon an official within the department.
    • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], OCLC 762018299, Romans xj:[13], folio ccxj, verso:
      […] in as moche as I am the apoſtle off the gentyls I will magnify mynoffice […]
    • 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."
  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.
    • 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 606515358, [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, l. 227:
      The Tories had been in office ten years.
  4. 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 606515358, [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], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
      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 928184292, 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 20599507, 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 38659585, page 145:
      […] there I readily engaged in the office of pointing out to my friend, the certain evils of such a choice.
  5. (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 1118497469:
      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 38659585, 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, Science and Civilisation in China, Ch. iii, 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.
  6. (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 606515358, [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 928184292, 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 20599507, 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 890513588, page 359:
      […] he got her slippers and took off her boots. It delighted him to perform menial offices.
  7. (figuratively, slang) Inside information.
    • 1803, Sporting Magazine, No. 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 (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
      " […] 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.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 2 Chronicles 24:11, column 1:
      Now it came to paſſe that at what time the chest was brought vnto the kingsoffice, by the hand of the Leuites […]
    • 1885, The Law Times Reports, No. 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 222716698, 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 1028045875, 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, No. 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.
    1. 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 2057953, page 347:
        The “Pall Mall Gazette” had its offices […] in Catherine Street […]
    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, Death of Holy Murderer, Ch. viii, 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, Forraine Travell, Ch. x, 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 1708336, 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 3359935, 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, A Study in Scarlet, Ch. iii:
      A short passage, bare planked and dusty, led to the kitchen and offices.
    • 1957, Emyr Estyn Evans, Irish Folk Ways, Ch. viii, 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, Room at Top, Ch. i, page 13:
      The bathroom's to the right and the usual offices next to it.
    • 1980, William Golding, Rites of Passage, Ch. i, 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, Vol. 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, Vol. 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.
    • 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 606515358, [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 3083972, 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?
  18. (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 606515358, [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 560104579, canto XI, stanza XL, page 123:
      The very clerks,—those somewhat dirty springs / Of office, or the House of Office […]
  19. (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 J. Soter?], OCLC 79441532, 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: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], OCLC 80026745, 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
  • (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
  • booking office
  • box office
  • die in office
  • Divine Office
  • divine office
  • doctor's office
  • drawing office
  • find an office
  • fire office
  • gingerbread-office
  • give the office
  • good offices
  • head office
  • hold office
  • Holy Office
  • home office
  • house of office
  • ill offices
  • in office
  • inquest of office
  • insurance office
  • kind offices
  • last offices
  • leave office
  • man of office
  • Met 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 for Baptism
  • Office for the Dead
  • Office for the Visitation of the Sick
  • office found
  • office furniture
  • office girl
  • office giver
  • office-giver
  • officegoer
  • office-holder
  • office holder
  • office-holding
  • office holding
  • office hours
  • office-hunter
  • office-hunting
  • office hymn
  • office job
  • office jobbing
  • office junior
  • office-keeper
  • office keeper
  • office lady
  • officelike
  • 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 routine
  • office-seeker
  • office seeker
  • office-seeking
  • office seeking
  • office staff
  • office stool
  • office suite
  • office tower
  • office wife
  • office work
  • office worker
  • officey
  • officiant
  • officious
  • of office
  • OL
  • out of office
  • paperless office
  • post office
  • return an office
  • say office
  • seek office
  • take an office
  • take office
  • take the office
  • ticket office
  • officer
  • official
  • officiate

Descendants

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

Translations

kindness — see good offices

Verb

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, 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.
  2. (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

  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

  • coiffe

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin officium.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɔ.fis/
  • audio(file)

Noun

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

  • couteau d'office
  • faire office de
  • office des Grandes Heures
  • office de tourisme

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

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of officiō

Noun

office

  1. 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(key): /ɔˈfiːs(ə)/, /ˈɔfis(ə)/

Noun

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:
    • c. 1300, St. Thomas Becket, ll. 244 ff.
      Þis holi Man was i-torned...
      To a gret office of þe world.
    1. A clerical or church post or position; an religious office.
    2. 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.
    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:
    • c. 1330, Lai le Freine:
      Þe porter of þe abbay... dede his ofice in þe clos.
    1. The role, purpose, or intended use or utility of something (especially a bodily part).
      • c. 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer translating Boethius as Boece:
        Sche say me... withouten office of tunge and al dowmb.
      • 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.
      • 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. (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.
    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.
      • a. 1422, petition, P.R.O. 117, 5842:
        ... Abbeyes, Priories, hospitals, chaunteries and chappels, chaces, parkes, offices, milnes, weres...
    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...
  5. 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.
  6. The intended or ideal working or operation of something.
  7. An officeholder invested with powers and authority.
    • c. 1440, Stephen Scrope translating Christine de Pisan as The Epistle of Othea, page 85:
      He pleide so sweetly þat... alle þe helly offices lefte there besinesses.
  8. (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...
    • 1440, Promptorium Parvulorum, page 363:
      Offyce, or place of offyce, officina.
  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.
  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.)‎, 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.
  • 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

  1. Alternative form of officen

Norman

Noun

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

Noun

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

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

Descendants

  • French: office

References

  • office on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub
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