office
pronunciation
How to pronounce office in British English:
UK [ˈɒfɪs]
How to pronounce office in American English:
US [ˈɑːfɪs]
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- Noun:
- place of business where professional or clerical duties are performed
- an administrative unit of government
- the actions and activities assigned to or required or expected of a person or group
- (of a government or government official) holding an office means being in power
- professional or clerical workers in an office
- a religious rite or service prescribed by ecclesiastical authorities
- a job in an organization
Word Origin
- office
- office: [13] Office comes from a Latin source that originally meant ‘do work’. This was officium, a reduced form of an earlier *opificium, which was compounded from opus ‘work’ (source of English opera, operate, etc) and -ficium, a derivative of facere ‘do’ (source of English fact, faction, etc). That original literal sense has now disappeared from English (which got the word via Old French office), but it has left its mark in ‘position, post, job’ and ‘place where work is done’, both of which existed in Latin.English has a small cluster of derivatives, including officer [14], official [14], officiate [17], and officious [16].=> fact, factory, fashion, opera, operate
- office (n.)
- mid-13c., "a post, an employment to which certain duties are attached," from Anglo-French and Old French ofice "place or function; divine service" (12c. in Old French) or directly from Latin officium "service, kindness, favor; official duty, function, business; ceremonial observance," (in Church Latin, "church service"), literally "work-doing," from ops (genitive opis) "power, might, abundance, means" (related to opus "work;" see opus) + stem of facere "do, perform" (see factitious). Meaning "place for conducting business" first recorded 1560s. Office hours attested from 1841.
Example
- 1. The copyright office is expected to rule in the fall .
- 2. All four worked at rio 's sales and marketing office in shanghai .
- 3. Even the statistical office 's estimate may overstate the eventual cost .
- 4. The patent office granted apple the patent four years later , in early 2010 .
- 5. Public money has been committed for a further-education college and a new public records office .