furnish
pronunciation
How to pronounce furnish in British English:
UK [ˈfɜːnɪʃ]
How to pronounce furnish in American English:
US [ˈfɜːrnɪʃ]
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- Verb:
- provide or furnish with
- provide or equip with furniture
Word Origin
- furnish
- furnish: [15] Far apart as they may now seem, furnish is closely parallel in its development with frame. Both originated as verbs based on from, in its earliest signification ‘forward movement, advancement, progress’. Frame was a purely English formation, but furnish goes back beyond that to prehistoric Germanic, where it was formed as *frumjan. This was borrowed into Vulgar Latin as *fromīre, which in due course diversified to *formīre and *fornīre, the form adopted into Old French as furnir.Its lengthened stem furniss- provided English with furnish. To begin with this retained the ancestral sense ‘advance to completion, accomplish, fulfil’ (‘Behight [promise] no thing but that ye may furnish and hold it’, Melusine 1500). However, this died out in the mid 16th century, leaving the field clear for the semantic extension ‘provide’. The derivative furniture [16] comes from French fourniture, but its main meaning, ‘chairs, tables, etc’, recorded from as early as the 1570s, is a purely English development (the majority of European languages get their word for ‘furniture’ from Latin mōbīle ‘movable’: French meubles, Italian mobili, Spanish muebles, German möbel, Swedish möbler, Dutch meubelen, Russian mebel’ – indeed, even Middle English had mobles, though it retained the broader meaning ‘movable property’).By another route, Old French furnir has also given English veneer.=> from, furniture, veneer
- furnish (v.)
- mid-15c., "fit out, equip, to provision" (a castle, ship, person); "provide (soldiers)," from Old French furniss-/forniss-, present participle stem of furnir/fornir "accomplish, carry out; equip, fit out; provide" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *fornire, alteration of *fromire, from West Germanic *frumjan "forward movement, advancement" (source also of Old High German frumjan "to do, execute, provide"), from Proto-Germanic *fram- "forwards" (see from). General meaning "to provide" (something) is from 1520s; specifically "provide furniture for a room or house" from 1640s. Related: Furnished; furnishing.
Example
- 1. Surprisingly , lice once again furnish the answer .
- 2. Schools and teachers may furnish parents of students with guidance for family education .
- 3. Now they are the preserve of the rich , who can afford to furnish , clean and heat them comfortably .
- 4. If these tests are successful , liquid armour could furnish soldiers with protective clothing that is more comfortable and less cumbersome than existing body armour , and provides them with greater protection .
- 5. To the person who scorns social utility or admires coercion , our analysis might furnish powerful arguments for a policy of thoroughgoing statism .