different between office vs employment

English

Etymology

From Middle English office, from Old French office, from Latin officium (“personal, official, or moral duty; official position; function; ceremony, esp. last rites”), contracted from opificium (“construction: the act of building or the thing built”), from opifex (“doer of work, craftsman”) + -ium (“-y: forming actions”), from op- (“base of opus: work”) + -i- (“connective”) + -fex (“combining form of facere: to do, to make”).

Use in reference to office software is a genericization of various proprietary program suites, such as Microsoft Office.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??f?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??f?s/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /??f?s/
• Hyphenation: of?fice
• Rhymes: -?f?s

Noun

office (plural offices)

1. (religion) A ceremonial duty or service, particularly:
   • 1535, Bible (Coverdale Bible), 1 Chron., 29:

     Golde (gaue he him)... for all maner of vessels of euery offyce.

   1. (Christianity) The authorized form of ceremonial worship of a church.
   2. (Christianity, obsolete) Mass, (particularly) the introit sung at its beginning.
      • 1549, "Svpper of the Lorde" in The Book of Common Prayer, page 121:

        The office, or Introite, (as they call it).

   3. (Christianity) Any special liturgy, as the Office for the Dead or of the Virgin.
   4. (Christianity) A daily service without the eucharist.
   5. (Catholicism) The daily service of the breviary, the liturgy for each canonical hour, including psalms, collects, and lessons.

      In the Latin rite, all bishops, priests, and transitional deacons are obliged to recite the Divine Office daily.

      • 1674, Richard Strange, The Life and Gests of S. Thomas Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford, page 287:

        His spirituall exercises were chiefly Prayer, the H. Sacrifice of Masse, his Canonicall Houres or diuine Office.

   6. (Protestant) Various prayers used with modification as a morning or evening service.
   7. (Christianity) Last rites.
      • 1582, Bible (Rheims), John, 12 (marginalia):

        The deuout offices of balming and anointing the dead bodies.

      • 1618, S. Rowlands, Sacred Memorie, 37:

        To show their loue in this last office done
        To a dead friend.

      • 1822, Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, Vol. III, Ch. xi, page 318:

        I... will be first to render thee the decent offices due to the dead.

2. A position of responsibility.

   When the office of Secretary of State is vacant, its duties fall upon an official within the department.

   • 1611, Bible (KJV), Epistle to the Romans, 11:13:

     ...in as much as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles, I magnifie mine office...

   • 1787, United States Constitution, Article II, §1:

     I do solemnly swear... that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

3. Official position, particularly high employment within government; tenure in such a position.

   She held office as secretary of state until she left office to run for office.

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare & al., The Life of Tymon of Athens, Act I, Scene ii, ll. 207 f.:

     Fla.... Well, would I were
     Gently put out of Office, before I were forc'd out...

   • 1923, Rose Macaulay, Told by an Idiot, Act III, Scene xv, l. 227:

     The Tories had been in office ten years.

4. (obsolete) An official or group of officials; (figuratively) a personification of officeholders.
   • a. 1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke, Act III, Scene i, ll. 1724 ff.:

     ...For who would beare...
     The pangs of despiz'd loue, the lawes delay,
     The insolence of office...
     When he himselfe might his quietas make...
     With a bare bodkin?

   • a. 1625, John Fletcher & al., A Very Woman, Act III, Scene ii, ll. 36 ff.:

     Ped. Now Mr. Office:
     What is the Reason that your vigilant Greatness
     And your Wife's wonderful wiseness have lock'd up from me
     The way to see my Mistress? Who's Dog's dead now,
     That you observe these Vigils?

5. A duty, particularly owing to one's position or station; a charge, trust, or role; (obsolete, rare) moral duty.
   • c. 1603, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act II, Scene ii, ll. 749 ff.:

     Ang.... Doe you your office, or giue vp your Place,
     And you shall well be spar'd.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Bk. ix:

     The sun was sunk, and after him the star
     Hesperus, whose office is to bring
     Twilight upon the earth...

   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Vol. I, Ch. viii, page 87:

     A woman... might bring herself to submit to the offices of a nurse, for the sake of the provision and security of a wife.

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, page 144:

     […] there I readily engaged in the office of pointing out to my friend the certain evils of such a choice.

6. (obsolete) The performance of a duty; an instance of performing a duty.
   • 1535, Bible (Coverdale), 1 Kings, 10:5:

     Whan the Quene of riche Arabia sawe all the wyszdome of Salomon... & the offyces of his ministers, and their garmentes... she wondred exceadingly.

   • 1693, John Dryden translating Juvenal as The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis, Ch. iii, page 41:

     At Rome (nor think me partial to the Poor)
     All Offices of ours are out of Door.

7. (archaic) Function: anything typically done by or expected of something.
   • 1704, Isaac Newton, Opticks:

     In this experiment the several intervals of the teeth of the comb do the office of so many prisms.

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Vol. I, Ch. viii, page 76:

     I hope you saw her petticoat, six inches deep in mud,... and the gown which had been let down to hide it, not doing its office.

   • 1971, John Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, Ch. iii, page 590:

     These ‘Pacific boom-lateens’... are believed to derive from a kind of sprit-sail... in which the upper sprit performs the office of a more or less aft-raking mast.
8. (obsolete) A bodily function, (particularly) urination and defecation; an act of urination or defecation.
   • c. 1603, William Shakespeare, The Tragoedy of Othello, The Moore of Venice, Act III, Scene iv, ll. 2265 ff.:

     Cassio.... Whom I, with all the Office of my heart
     Intirely honour...

   • 1613, Samuel Purchas, Purchas, His Pilgrimage, page 623:

     Washing themselves, as they doe also after the offices of Nature.

   • 1764 August 5, David Garrick, letter:

     I never, since I left England, till now, have regal'd Myself with a good house of Office... the holes in Germany are... too round, chiefly owing... to the broader bottoms of the Germans.

   • 1823, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto XI, §xl, ll. 123 f.:

     The very clerks—those somewhat dirty springs
     Of office, or the House of Office.

9. (now usually in plural) A service, a kindness.

   The secretary prevailed at the negotiations through the good offices of the Freedonian ambassador.

   • 1575, Elizabeth I, letter:

     ...which we have hitherto forborne to graunt... for the evell offices whiche her other Secretary did there.

   • c. 1595,, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard the Second, Act II, Scene ii, ll. 1089 ff.:

     Bush. Thither will I with you, for little office
     Will the hatefull commons perfourme for vs,
     Except like curs to teare vs all to pieces...

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book I, Ch. xiii:

     One of the maxims which the devil, in a late visit upon earth, left to his disciples, is, when once you are got up, to kick the stool from under you. In plain English, when you have made your fortune by the good offices of a friend, you are advised to discard him as soon as you can.

   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Vol. III, Ch. xiii, page 263:

     I... am sure you will be too generous to do us any ill offices.

   • 1830, Joseph Smith, Doctrine and Covenants 25:5:

     And the office of thy calling shall be for a comfort unto my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun., thy husband, in his afflictions, with consoling words, in the spirit of meekness.

   • 1915, William Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage, Ch. lxx, page 359:

     He got her slippers and took off her boots. It delighted him to perform menial offices.

10. (figuratively, slang) Inside information.
    • 1803, Sporting Magazine, No. 21, page 327:

      Giving the office—is when you suffer any person, who may stand behind your chair, to look over your hand.
11. A room, set of rooms, or building used for non-manual work, particularly:

    The office of the Secretary of State is cleaned when it is vacant.

    • 1611, Bible (KJV), 2 Chron., 24:11:

      Now it came to passe that at what time the chest was brought vnto the kings office, by the hand of the Leuites...

    • 1885, The Law Times Reports, No. 53, page 459:

      Griffith, having taken offices a few doors off, also carried on the business of a solicitor.

    • 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity, Ch. 2:

      We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case.

    • 1945, H.L. Mencken, The American Language, Supplement Vol. I, page 503:

      An English lawyer, whether barrister or solicitor, never has an office, but always chambers.

    • 2013 August 3, "Revenge of the Nerds" in The Economist, No. 408:

      Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York, and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.

    1. A room, set of rooms, or building used for administration and bookkeeping.
       • 1849, William Thackeray, Pendennis, Vol. I, Ch. xxxvi, page 347:

         The ‘Pall Mall Gazette’ had its offices... in Catherine Street.

    2. A room, set of rooms, or building used for selling services or tickets to the public.
       • 1819 September 22, John Keats, letter to Reynolds:

         There will be some of the family waiting for you at the coach-office.

    3. (chiefly US, medicine) A room, set of rooms, or building used for consultation and diagnosis, but not surgery or other major procedures.
       • 1975, M. Duke, Death of Holy Murderer, Ch. viii, page 108:

         This one was made out at a private office—Office is American for Surgery.

12. (figuratively) The staff of such places.

    The whole office was there... well, except you, of course.

13. (figuratively, in large organizations) The administrative departments housed in such places, particularly:

    He's from our public relations office.

    1. (Britain, Australia, usually capitalized, with clarifying modifier) A ministry or other department of government.

       The secretary of state's British colleague heads the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

    2. (Catholicism, usually capitalized) Short for Holy Office: the court of final appeal in cases of heresy.
       • 1642, J. Howell, Forraine Travell, Ch. x, page 131:

         A Biscayner is capable to be a Cavalier of any of the three habits without any scrutiny to be made of the Office, whether he be, limpio de la sangre de los Moros, that is cleare of the bloud of the Moores or no.

       • 1658, Pilgrim's Book, page 3:

         They abiured their Heresy bublikly [sic] before the Commissary of the holy office.

    3. A particular place of business of a larger white-collar business.

       He worked as the receptionist at the Akron office.

       • 1647, W. Bridge, Saints Hiding-place, page 17:

         But there is an Insuring-Office set up in the Gospel, as to the venture of our eternities.

       • 1732, Benjamin Franklin, "Proposals & Queries to be Asked the Junto":

         Would not an Office of Insurance for Servants be of Service, and what Methods are proper for the erecting such an Office?

       • 1816, Jane Austen, Emma, Vol. II, Ch. xvii, page 324:

         There are advertising offices, and... by applying to them I should have no doubt of very soon meeting with something that would do.

       • 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Vol. II, Ch. xii, page 204:

         A large Danish sun or star hanging round his neck by a blue ribbon... had given him the appearance of being insured in some extraordinary Fire Office.

14. (now in the plural, dated) The parts of a house or estate devoted to manual work and storage, as the kitchen, scullery, laundry, stables, etc., particularly (euphemistic, dated) a house or estate's facilities for urination and defecation: outhouses or lavatories.
    • 1720, William Willymott translating Francis Bacon as "Of Building" in Lord Bacons Essays, Vol. I, page 283:

      As for the Offices, let them stand at some Distance from the House, with some low covered Galleries, to pass from them to the Palace it self.

    • 1727, "The Grand Mystery":

      ... proposals for erecting 500 Publick Offices of Ease in London and Westminster...

    • 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, Ch. iii:

      A short passage, bare planked and dusty, led to the kitchen and offices.

    • 1957, Emyr Estyn Evans, Irish Folk Ways, Ch. viii, page 112:

      Only in planted areas does one find old examples of planned ‘courtyard farms’ where the house and offices enclose a square or rectangular yard.

    • 1957, John Braine, Room at Top, Ch. i, page 13:

      The bathroom's to the right and the usual offices next to it.

    • 1980, William Golding, Rites of Passage, Ch. i, page 6:

      Aft of the lobby... is the dining saloon for the passengers with the offices of necessity on either side of it.

15. (Britain law, historical) Clipping of inquest of office: an inquest undertaken on occasions when the Crown claimed the right of possession to land or property.
    • 1768, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Vol. III, page 259:

      If they find the treason or felony... of the party accused... the king is thereupon, by virtue of this office found, intitled to have his forfeitures.

    • 1977, John McDonald Burke, Jowitt's Dictionary of English Law, Vol. I, page 280:

      If the Crown claimed the land of an idiot, the person had first to be found an idiot by office.

16. (obsolete) A piece of land used for hunting; the area of land overseen by a gamekeeper.
17. (figuratively, slang, obsolete) A hangout: a place where one is normally found.
    • 1699, A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew:

      His Office, any Man's ordinary Haunt, or Plying-place, be it Tavern, Ale-house, Gaming-house.

18. (Britain military slang, dated) A plane's cockpit, particularly an observer's cockpit.
    • 1917, Alan Bott, An Airman's Outings, page 161:

      I withdraw into ‘the office’, otherwise the observer's cockpit.

    • 1941 March 24, Life, page 85:

      In the slang of the Royal Air Force man, the cockpit of his plane is the ‘pulpit’ or ‘office’, the glass covering over it the ‘greenhouse’.

    • 1966 May 13, New Statesman, page 687

      ‘Up in the office they too knew it.’ ‘The office? You mean the flight deck?’ ‘Just that. No more. No less. The office.’

19. (computing) A collection of business software typically including a word processor and spreadsheet and slideshow programs.

Usage notes

In reference to professional services, the term office is used with somewhat greater scope in American English, which speaks of doctor's offices etc., where British English generally prefers particular words such as surgery.

Synonyms

• (religious ritual): service, divine service, religious service, liturgy
• (Catholic ritual): Divine Office, breviary, Liturgy of the Hours, liturgy of the hours, canonical hours
• (position of responsibility): See Thesaurus:office
• (doctor's office): surgery (UK)
• (major governmental division): department, ministry, bureau
• (facilities for urination and defecation): See Thesaurus:bathroom

Hyponyms

• (position of responsibility): See Thesaurus:office
• (site of non-manual work): ticket office, box office (selling tickets); post office (governmental mail services)

Derived terms

Related terms

• officer
• official
• officiate

Descendants

• ? Swahili: afisi
• ? Marshallese: w?pij
• ? Russian: ???? (ofis)
• ? Bulgarian: ???? (ofis)

Translations

Verb

office (third-person singular simple present offices, present participle officing, simple past and past participle officed)

1. To provide (someone) with an office.

   • Is he officed in Congressional Relations or is he officed in SCA?

   • Prior to that time, Station personnel were first officed in temporary wartime barracks on the campus and then on the second floor of the Journalism Building.

2. (intransitive) To have an office.

References

• Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 7th ed. "office". G. & C. Merriam Co. (Springfield), 1967.
• The Century Dictionary. "office". The Century Co. (New York), 1911.

Anagrams

• coiffe

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin officium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?.fis/

Noun

office m (plural offices)

1. charge, task, mandate
2. administrative bureau, department
3. religious service, notably liturgical office
4. place where a household's table (food and drink)-related services are conducted, especially by domestic staff

Derived terms

• couteau d'office
• faire office de
• office des Grandes Heures
• office de tourisme

References

• Nouveau Petit Larousse illustré. Dictionnaire encyclopédique. Paris, Librairie Larousse, 1952, 146th edition

Further reading

• “office” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• coiffe, coiffé

Latin

Verb

office

1. second-person singular present active imperative of offici?

Noun

office

1. ablative singular of offex

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French office, from Latin officium, contracted form of opificium.

Alternative forms

• offiz, offis, offyce, ofys, offise, ofice, offece, offys

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??fi?s(?)/, /??fis(?)/

Noun

office (plural offices)

1. The state of being employed or having a work or job; employment:
   1. Ecclesiastical or religious work; a church career.
   2. (rare) Unskilled work; any work that is unimportant or base.
2. A position of responsibility or control; a crucial occupation:
   • c. 1300, St. Thomas Becket, ll. 244 ff.

     Þis holi Man was i-torned...
     To a gret office of þe world.

   1. A clerical or church post or position; an religious office.
   2. A governmental or administrative position or post; a political office.
      • c. 1300, St. Thomas Becket, ll. 223 ff.

        He cam to court and was in guod offiz
        With þe erchebischop of Kaunterburi.

   3. The situation, status, or rank one has in the wider world or within society.
3. A task, chore or assignment, especially one which is important or required; an obligation:
   • c. 1330, Lai le Freine:

     Þe porter of þe abbay... dede his ofice in þe clos.

   1. The role, purpose, or intended use or utility of something (especially a bodily part).
      • c. 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer translating Boethius as Boece:

        Sche say me... withouten office of tunge and al dowmb.

      • c. 1390, John Gower, Confessio Amantis, Book VII, ll. 467 ff.:

        As it is in Phisique write
        Of livere, of lunge, of galle, of splen,
        Thei alle unto the herte ben Servantz, and ech in his office
        Entendeth to don him service.

      • c. 1395, Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Tale of the Wyf of Bathe" in Tales of Caunterbury, ll. 127 ff.:

        Membres of generacioun... maked been for bothe;
        That is to seye, for office and for ese
        Of engendrure.

   2. A task or function that one organ does to assist another or the body as a whole.
      • 1340, Ayenbite:

        Þe mouþ heþ tuo offices, huer-of þe on belongeþ to þe zuel?...
        Þe oþer zuo is in speche.

   3. A religious ceremony or ritual; a task performed for religious reasons.
      • a. 1300, Arthour & Merlin, ll. 2758 ff.:

        Þe holy bischop...
        For him dede þe office;
        In erþe he was sikerliche
        Layd swiþe nobeliche.

   4. (Christianity) The beginning or the initial portion of the Eucharist.
      • c. 1300, St. Thomas Becket, ll. 942 ff.:

        He song þulke masse ilome, for al-so heo bi-ginnez
        Þe furste offiz is propre inov to þe stat þat he was Inne.

   5. A core human faculty (e.g. movement, talking, literacy)
4. A part, faculty, or division of a larger body:
   1. A part of a house or estate devoted to manual work and storage.
      • a. 1422, petition, P.R.O. 117, 5842:

        ... Abbeyes, Priories, hospitals, chaunteries and chappels, chaces, parkes, offices, milnes, weres...

   2. A part or subdivision of an estate devoted to a specified function.
   3. (rare) A part or subdivision of a government devoted to a specified function.
      • 1435, petition, P.R.O. 130, 6460A:

        John Duc of Bedford... Admirall of England in the office of þe admiralte in the Countees of Kent, Sussex...

5. An inquest undertaken to investigate the possession of land or property.
   • 1432, petition, P.R.O. 26, 1259:

     Of the whiche Maner the seyd Oratrice... be an Offyce was put out.

6. The intended or ideal working or operation of something.
7. An officeholder invested with powers and authority.
   • c. 1440, Stephen Scrope translating Christine de Pisan as The Epistle of Othea, page 85:

     He pleide so sweetly þat... alle þe helly offices lefte there besinesses.

8. (rare) A building or structure used for business purposes; an office.
   • c. 1395, Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Freres Tale" in Tales of Caunterbury:

     ...I wol han .xij. pens, though that she be wood,
     Or I wol sompne hir vn to our office...

   • 1440, Promptorium Parvulorum, page 363:

     Offyce, or place of offyce, officina.

9. (rare) The process or undertaking of a task or assignment.
   • c. 1300, The Romance of Sir Beues of Hamtoun, ll. 3555 ff.:

     While Beues was in þat office,
     Þe kinges sone...
     A ?ede to Beves stable.

10. (rare) The activities typical of and concomitant to one's place in society.
11. (rare) A favour; a beneficial deed or act.

Related terms

• officen
• officer
• official

Descendants

• English: office
• Scots: office, offish

References

• “off??ce, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-03-17.

Etymology 2

From Old French officier.

Verb

office

1. Alternative form of officen

Norman

Noun

office m (plural offices)

1. (Jersey) office

Old French

Noun

office m (oblique plural offices, nominative singular offices, nominative plural office)

1. office (building; room)
2. office (position, role, job)
3. service

Descendants

• French: office

References

• office on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

English

Etymology

From employ (itself from Middle French employer, from Middle French empleier, from Latin implic? (“enfold, involve, be connected with”), itself from in- + plic? (“fold”)) +? -ment

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?pl??m?nt/, /?m?pl??m?nt/

Noun

employment (countable and uncountable, plural employments)

1. The work or occupation for which one is used, and often paid
2. The act of employing
3. A use, purpose

   The personnel director handled the whole employment procedure

4. The state of being employed
   • 1853, Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener, in Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories, New York: Penguin Books, 1968; reprint 1995 as Bartleby, ISBN 0 14 60.0012 9, p.3:

     At the period just preceding the advent of Bartleby, I had two persons as copyists in my employment, and a promising lad as an office-boy.

5. An activity to which one devotes time
6. (economics) The number or percentage of people at work

Synonyms

• employ
• hire

Antonyms

• unemployment
• underemployment

Related terms

Translations