chair: [13] Chair comes ultimately from Greek kathédrā ‘seat’ (source also of cathedral, of course), which was a compound originally meaning literally ‘something for sitting down on’ – it was formed from katá- ‘down’ and *hed- ‘sit’. It produced Latin cathedra, which in Old French became chaiere, the source of the English word.
The use of chair specifically for the seat occupied by someone presiding at a meeting dates from the mid 17th century, and its metaphorical extension to the person sitting in it, as symbolizing his or her office – as in ‘address one’s remarks to the chair’ – is virtually contemporary (‘The Chair behaves himself like a Busby amongst so many schoolboys’, Thomas Burton’s Diary, 23 March 1658); but its use as a synonym for chairperson, to avoid a distinction on grounds of sex, is a late 20th-century development. => cathedral
chair (n.)
early 13c., chaere, from Old French chaiere "chair, seat, throne" (12c.; Modern French chaire "pulpit, throne;" the more modest sense having gone since 16c. with variant form chaise), from Latin cathedra "seat" (see cathedral).
Figurative sense of "authority" was in Middle English, of bishops and professors. Meaning "office of a professor" (1816) is extended from the seat from which a professor lectures (mid-15c.). Meaning "seat of a person presiding at meeting" is from 1640s. As short for electric chair from 1900.
chair (v.)
mid-15c., "install in a chair or seat" (implied in chairing), from chair (n.); meaning "preside over" (a meeting, etc.) is attested by 1921. Related: Chaired.
双语例句
1. He sat penitently in his chair by the window.
他懊悔地坐在靠窗的椅子上。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Bob slid from his chair and lay prone on the floor.
鲍勃从椅子上滑下来，趴在了地板上。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Use your lunch hour to have a nap in your chair.
利用午饭时间坐在椅子上打个盹吧。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Alistair saw the dim figure of Rose in the chair.
阿利斯泰尔看见了坐在椅子里的罗丝的模糊身影。
来自柯林斯例句
5. I staggered and had to clutch at a chair for support.
