different between furniture vs fitment

English

Etymology

From Middle French fourniture (“a supply, or the act of furnishing”), from fournir (“to furnish”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?f??n?t??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?f?n?t??/

Noun

furniture (usually uncountable, plural furnitures)

1. (now usually uncountable) Large movable item(s), usually in a room, which enhance(s) the room's characteristics, functionally or decoratively.

   They bought a couple of pieces of furniture.

   • Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local colour) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust […].
2. The harness, trappings etc. of a horse, hawk, or other animal.
3. Fittings, such as handles, of a door, coffin, or other wooden item.
4. (firearms) The stock and forearm of a weapon.
5. (printing, historical) The pieces of wood or metal put round pages of type to make proper margins and fill the spaces between the pages and the chase.
6. (journalism) Any material on the page other than the text and pictures of stories.

Usage notes

• Before the end of the nineteenth century, the plural furnitures existed in Standard English in both the U.S. and the U.K.; during the twentieth century, however, it ceased to be used by native speakers.
• A single item of furniture, such as a chair or a table, is often called a piece of furniture.
• In many languages "piece of furniture" is one word, and often its plural form is the equivalent of the English "furniture", for example French meuble / meubles.

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:furniture

Meronyms

• drawer
• wardrobe

Derived terms

Related terms

• furnish

Translations

Further reading

• furniture in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• furniture in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

fit +? -ment

Noun

fitment (plural fitments)

1. (archaic) Something that suits or fits.
   • 1610, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Cymbeline,

     I am, sir,

     The soldier that did company these three

     In poor beseeming; 'twas a fitment for

     The purpose I then follow'd.

2. A thing fitted to another in order to accomplish a specific purpose.
3. An item of permanent furniture or equipment.
   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     Poor Mole! The Life Adventurous was so new a thing to him, and so thrilling; and this fresh aspect of it was so tempting; and he had fallen in love at first sight with the canary-coloured cart and all its little fitments.

   • 1984, A. H. Masterman, R. M. Boyce, Plumbing and Mechanical Services: A Textbook, Page 150,

     A good sanitary fitment should be of the simplest possible design, constructed so as to be self-cleansing, and, as far as possible, free from any moving working parts.

4. The act of furnishing with fitments; an instance of such an act.
   • 1910, United States Supreme Court, United States Supreme Court reports, Volumes 22-25,

     Upon such an indictment against the owner, charging him with fitting out the ship with intent to employ her in the illegal voyage, evidence is admissible, that he commanded, authorized, and superintended the fitment, through the instrumentality of his agents, without being personally present.

5. (India) The categorisation of an employee, for the purpose of calculating salary or allowances.
6. The proper positioning and orientation of a thing for it to serve its designed purpose.
   • 1885, Miguel de Cervantes, John Ormsby (translator), Don Quixote,

     He told Sancho to pick up the helmet, and he taking it in his hands said:

     "By God the basin is a good one, and worth a real of eight if it is worth a maravedis," and handed it to his master, who immediately put it on his head, turning it round, now this way, now that, in search of fitment, and not finding it he said, "Clearly the pagan to whose measure this famous head-piece was first forged must have had a very large head; but the worst of it is half of it is wanting."