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chiffonier
May. 18th, 2026 07:05 amOn to words from Busman's Honeymoon:
chiffonier (shif-uh-NEER) - n., any of several pieces of furniture, esp. (a) (UK) a low set of shelves, sometimes protected by a grille door, or (b) a tall, narrow chest of drawers, typically with a mirror attached on top.
The American version:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Also historically, a shallow, tall set of shelves for the display of china, and one can imagine divergent streams of modifications that give us the two most common modern meanings. Also, I've no idea what the word means in Canada, as up there they sometimes follow North American usage and sometimes British. From French, obviously, where the original meaning was rag-picker (from chiffon, rag/scrap), suggesting the original furniture so named was for storing odds and ends.
---L.
chiffonier (shif-uh-NEER) - n., any of several pieces of furniture, esp. (a) (UK) a low set of shelves, sometimes protected by a grille door, or (b) a tall, narrow chest of drawers, typically with a mirror attached on top.
The American version:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Also historically, a shallow, tall set of shelves for the display of china, and one can imagine divergent streams of modifications that give us the two most common modern meanings. Also, I've no idea what the word means in Canada, as up there they sometimes follow North American usage and sometimes British. From French, obviously, where the original meaning was rag-picker (from chiffon, rag/scrap), suggesting the original furniture so named was for storing odds and ends.
---L.
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