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office

noun
/ˈɒf.ɪs/UK/ˈɔf.ɪs//ˈɔ.fɪs/US

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 computing sense is a genericization of various proprietary program suites, such as Microsoft Office.

  1. derived from officium
  2. derived from office
  3. inherited from office

Definitions

  1. A ceremonial duty or service, particularly

    • Golde (gaue he him)[…]for all maner of veſſels of euery offyce[…]

  2. A ceremonial duty or service

  3. A position of responsibility.

    • 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.
    • […]in as moche as I am the apoſtle off the gentyls I will magnify myn office[…]
  4. ›+ 21 more definitions

    1. Official position, particularly high employment within government

      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.
      • Fla.[…]Well, would I were / Gently put out of Office, before I were forc'd out[…]
      • The Tories had been in office ten years.

    2. A duty, particularly owing to one's position or station

      A duty, particularly owing to one's position or station; a charge, trust, or role; (obsolete, rare) moral duty.

      • Ang.... Doe you your office, or giue vp your Place, And you shall well be spar'd.
      • The Sun was ſunk, and after him the Starr / Of Heſperus, whoſe Office is to bring / Twilight upon the Earth[…]

    3. Function

      Function: anything typically done by or expected of something.

      • In this experiment the several intervals of the teeth of the comb do the office of so many prisms.
      • 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.
      • 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.

    4. A service, a kindness.

      • The secretary prevailed at the negotiations through the good offices of the Freedonian ambassador.
      • ...which we have hitherto forborne to graunt... for the evell offices whiche her other Secretary did there.
      • 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...

    5. Inside information.

      • Giving the office—is when you suffer any person, who may stand behind your chair, to look over your hand.
      • "[…]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?"

    6. 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.
      • Now it came to paſſe that at what time the chest was brought vnto the kings office, by the hand of the Leuites[…]
      • Griffith, having taken offices a few doors off, also carried on the business of a solicitor.

    7. A room, set of rooms, or building used for non-manual work

      • The “Pall Mall Gazette” had its offices[…]in Catherine Street[…]

    8. The staff of such places.

      • The whole office was there... well, except you, of course.

    9. The administrative departments housed in such places, particularly

      • He's from our public relations office.

    10. The administrative departments housed in such places

      • The secretary of state's British colleague heads the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

    11. The parts of a house or estate devoted to manual work and storage, as the kitchen,…

      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.

      • 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.
      • ... proposals for erecting 500 Publick Offices of Ease in London and Westminster...
      • A short passage, bare planked and dusty, led to the kitchen and offices.

    12. Clipping of inquest of office

      • 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.
      • If the Crown claimed the land of an idiot, the person had first to be found an idiot by office.

    13. A piece of land used for hunting

      A piece of land used for hunting; the area of land overseen by a gamekeeper.

      • All hunt in James Whitendales office.

    14. A hangout

      A hangout: a place where one is normally found.

      • His Office, any Man's ordinary Haunt, or Plying-place, be it Tavern, Ale-house, Gaming-house.

    15. A plane's cockpit, particularly an observer's cockpit.

      • I withdraw into ‘the office’, otherwise the observer's cockpit.
      • 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’.
      • ‘Up in the office they too knew it.’ ‘The office? You mean the flight deck?’ ‘Just that. No more. No less. The office.’

    16. A collection of business software typically including a word processor and spreadsheet…

      A collection of business software typically including a word processor and spreadsheet and slideshow programs.

    17. An official or group of officials

      An official or group of officials; (figuratively) a personification of officeholders.

      • […]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?
      • 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. A bodily function, (particularly) urination and defecation

      A bodily function, (particularly) urination and defecation; an act of urination or defecation.

      • Cassio.... Whom I, with all the Office of my heart Intirely honour[…]
      • Washing themselves, as they doe also after the offices of Nature.
      • 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.

    19. The performance of a duty

      The performance of a duty; an instance of performing a duty.

      • […]whan the Quene of riche Arabia sawe all the wyſzdome of Salomon[…]⁊ the offyces of his miniſters, and their garmentes[…]ſhe wondred exceadingly[…]
      • At Rome (nor think me partial to the Poor) / All Offices of ours are out of Door[…]

    20. To provide (someone) with an office.

      • Is he officed in Congressional Relations or is he officed in SCA?
      • 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.

    21. To have an office.

      • "I believed that Dave was just doing a favor for his brother," said Somerville, who added that he assumed Lou and Dave officed together.

The neighborhood

Derived

610 Office, back office, booking office, box office, box-office, box-office bomb, branch office, chain of office, circumlocution office, cloffice, coach-office, coffice, color of office, corner office, dead letter office, divine office, do a land-office business, doctor's office, drawing office, express office, family 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, high office, hoffice, hold office, Holy Office, home office, house of office · +158 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at office. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01office02ceremonial03observing04observation05noting06pronunciation07formal08official

A definitional loop anchored at office. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at office

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA