喜樂美語

Picture one big writing desk. That desk is the hinge of the whole word: put it in a room and the room becomes the office; fill a building with such offices and it becomes a department of government; give the desk drawers for clothes instead of papers and, in American homes, it becomes a chest of drawers. So the FBI and your grandmother's bedroom furniture really are the same word.

可以想成：一張大書桌。整個字都是繞著這張桌子轉的——桌子擺進房間，房間就成了辦公處；一整棟都是這種辦公處，就成了政府的某個「局」；如果桌子的抽屜裝的不是文件而是衣服，在美國家庭裡它就成了五斗櫃。所以 FBI 的那個 B 和阿嬤房間裡的衣櫃，真的是同一個字。

From the word’s history

French bureau first meant the cloth covering a desk (from burel 'coarse woolen cloth'), then the desk itself (1690s). Because such desks were the standard furniture of offices, it widened to 'office or place where business is transacted' (by 1720) and then to 'division of a government' (by 1796). The American 'chest of drawers' sense appears by 1770.

法文 bureau 原本指的是「蓋在書桌上的那塊布」（來自 burel，粗毛料），後來直接變成書桌本身（1690 年代）。因為辦公的地方標準配備就是這種桌子，意思在 1720 年前後擴大成「辦公的場所」，1796 年前後再擴大成「政府的一個部門」。另外約 1770 年在美式英語裡分出「放衣服的抽屜櫃」。所以「書桌 → 辦公室 → 政府機關」是一條真實的歷史路線，不是事後編出來的比喻。

Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), entry 'bureau'

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

容易混在一起的字在訂閱裡。容易混在一起的字需要訂閱帳號。

複數 bureaus / bureaux

意思相反

headquartershead office

原始詞典資料6 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

Bureauname

  • 1

    A surname from French.

bureaunoun/ˈbjʊ.ɹəʊ/

  • 1

    An administrative unit of government; office.

    • Ashley Johnson is an energy, trade and economics expert at the National Bureau of Asian Research, based in the United States.
  • 2

    An organization or office for collecting or providing information or news.

    • a news bureau; a travel bureau; a service bureau; an employment bureau; the Citizens Advice Bureau
    • Newt Gingrich gives powerful testimony to the appeal of “the last word in content providership” — speakers’ bureaus.
  • 3

    An office (room where clerical or professional duties are performed).

    • There was an eerie silence in the dorm [... in] the factory. [...] The lamp glowed in his bureau, warm and reassuring and, through the window, I could see his papers strewn across the desk. [...] I called his name again. A movement from his bureau. [...] I banged on his door until it opened a crack[. ...] He pushed me out onto the staircase. "Get out," he screamed. The door to his bureau slammed in my face.
    • Both my ability to comprehend what is being said [in French] and my ability to fake comprehension have improved expeditiously. Monsieur holds the door open for me as we step inside his bureau. No one looks up as we enter. He offers me a seat, and when I fail to take it he returns to my side of the desk [...].
  • 4

    A desk, usually with a cover and compartments that are located above the level of the writing surface rather than underneath, and often used for storing papers.

  • 5

    A chest of drawers for clothes.

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。