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Phil Cook wrote:
> And lo on Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:21:34 -0000, Bill Pragnell
> <bil### [at] hotmail com> did spake, saying:
>
>> Phil Cook wrote:
>>> I was reading a book which mentioned that bureaucracy is the obvious
>>> combination of bureau and -cracy. Now -cracy roughly means 'ruled by'
>>> and bureau is a desk; except that got its name from the *woolen
>>> cloth* used to cover the desks of important people. So the literal
>>> translation of bureaucracy is 'ruled by woolen cloth' or as the book
>>> put in 'ruled by green baize'.
>>
>> Bureau is also 'office' in French, and I always thought that meaning
>> came first, as the type of desk referred to in English is like a
>> really compact office. Chicken or egg? :-)
>
> http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Bureau states the origin as
> "burel" a coarse woolen cloth etc.
Interesting. Etymology is indeed a tangled web of upholstery.
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