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Origin and history of chair

chair(n.)

"a seat with a back, intended for one person," early 13c., chaere, from Old French chaiere "chair, seat, throne" (12c.; Modern French chaire "pulpit, throne;" the humbler sense having gone since 16c. with the variant form chaise), from Latin cathedra "seat" (see cathedral).

The figurative sense of "seat of office or authority" (c. 1300) originally was in reference to bishops and professors. The meaning "office of a professor" (1816) is extended from the seat from which a professor lectures (mid-15c.). The meaning "seat of a person presiding at meeting" is from 1640s. As short for electric chair from 1900. Chair-rail "strip or board of wood fastened to a wall at such a height as to prevent the plaster from being scraped by the backs of chairs" is from 1822.

also from early 13c.

chair(v.)

mid-15c., "install in a chair or seat" (implied in chairing), from chair (n.); the sense of "preside over" (a meeting, etc.) is attested by 1921. Related: Chaired.

also from mid-15c.

Entries linking to chair

cathedral(n.)

1580s, "church of a bishop," from phrase cathedral church (c. 1300) "principal church of a diocese," a phrase partially translating Late Latin ecclesia cathedralis "church of a bishop's seat," from a specific early Christian use of classical Latin cathedra "a teacher or professor's chair," commonly "an easy chair (principally used by ladies)," also metonymically, as in cathedrae molles "luxurious women," from Greek kathedra "chair, seat, bench," also "exalted seat occupied by men of eminent rank or influence," from kata "down" (see cata-) + hedra "seat, base, chair, face of a geometric solid" (from PIE root *sed- (1) "to sit"). The Greek word was used in Old Testament and New Testament translations.

The English word was born an adjective, and attempts to force further adjectivization onto it in 17c. yielded cathedraical (1670s), cathedratic (1660s), cathedratical (1660s), after which the effort seems to have been given up.

chaise(n.)

1701, "pleasure carriage," from French chaise "chair" (15c.), dialectal variant of chaire (see chair (n.)) due to 15c.-16c. Parisian swapping of -r- and -s-, a habit satirized by French writers. French chair and chaise then took respectively the senses of "high seat, throne, pulpit" and "chair, seat," but this was after chair had been borrowed into English in the older sense.

Originally a one-horse, two-wheeled carriage for two persons, later extended to other types of pleasure or travelling carriages. Chaise lounge (1800) is corruption of French chaise longue "long chair," with French word order, the second word confused in English with lounge.