Where does “office” come from?
office (Middle English) comes from Old French office, from Latin officium, from Latin opificium, from Latin opifex, from Latin Ops, from Latin oscen, from Latin opscen, from Latin ob- — to throw, reach, pierce; to hit by throwing.
office (Middle English): The state of being employed or having a work or...
Definitions
- The state of being employed or having a work or...
Ancestry of “office”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old French | office | office; service |
| 2 | Latin | officium | duty, service; office; obligation, an obligatory... |
| 3 | Latin | opificium | work |
| 4 | Latin | opifex | Someone who does work (especially creative or constructive); worker, maker, framer, fabricator, workman, mechanic, artificer, craftsman, inventor, artist, artisan |
| 5 | Latin | Ops | earth goddess, fertility deity |
| 6 | Latin | oscen | any bird by whose song cries augurs divined... |
| 7 | Latin | opscen | — |
| 8 | Latin | ob- | towards; against |
| 9 | Latin | obolus | obolus (Greek coin) |
| 10 | Ancient Greek | ὀβολός | obol, obolus, used at Athens as both a weight and... |
| 11 | Ancient Greek | ὀβελός | a spit, rod; a horizontal line |
| 12 | Ancient Greek | βέλος | missile, arrow, dart; weapon; something quickly... |
| 13 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷélHos | — |
| 14 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷelH- | to throw, reach, pierce; to hit by throwing |