buro

• bureau

Borrowed from French bureau (“desk”, earlier “coarse cloth (as desk cover), baize”), from Old French burel (“woolen cloth”), diminutive of *bure (compare Middle French bure (“coarse woolen cloth”), French bourre (“hair, fluff”)), from Late Latin burra (“wool, fluff, shaggy cloth, coarse fabric”); akin to Ancient Greek βερβέριον (berbérion, “shabby garment”).

buro (plural buros)

1. an office
   • 1998 May 13, “More than 9000 Basotho Gold Miners Retrenched”, in ANC Dailey News Briefing‎:

     … an employment buro said on Tuesday. The retrenchments took place between November last year and March 1998, the Employment Buro of Africa's regional manager, Chris Hechter said.

   • 2008 February 19, Alejandro López de Haro, Jr., “Fidel Castro Steps Down”, in Ground Report‎, retrieved 2012-09-14:

     … a member of both the council of ministers and the Cuban Communist Party's political buro.

2. a desk, usually with a cover and compartments for storing papers etc. located above the level of the writing surface rather than underneath.
   • 1902, Bill Arp, From the Uncivil War to Date‎, HTML edition, Univ. of North Carolina, published 1998:

     Mrs. Arp opens her school and stands 'em up by the buro to say their lessons.

3. (US) a Chest of drawers for clothes
   • 1885, Marietta Holley, Sweet Cicely‎, Online edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2005:

     And I went up into the spare chamber, and sort o' fixed Philury's things to the best advantage; for I knew the neighbors would be in to look at 'em. And I was a standin' there as calm and happy as the buro or table, ...

   • 1998 May, Phil D. Zimmerman, “The Stratford, Connecticut, bureau table: A re-examination”, in Antiques, volume 153, number 5, page 740:

     One can only speculate about the appearance of the "New-fashion buro" advertised for sale in the Boaton Gazette of May 1, 1750.

• burocracy
• burocrat
• burocratic
• burel

• Bour

• Audio

  (file)

buro n (plural buro's, diminutive burootje n)

1. Nonstandard spelling of bureau.

buro n

1. neuter singular of bur

buro

1. Obsolete plural form of bar, past tense of bära.