different between stool vs tabouret

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stu?l/
• Rhymes: -u?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English stool, stole, stol, from Old English st?l (“chair, seat, throne”), from Proto-Germanic *st?laz (“chair”) (compare West Frisian stoel, Dutch stoel, German Stuhl, Swedish/Norwegian/Danish stol, Finnish tuoli, Estonian tool), from Proto-Indo-European *stoh?los (compare Lithuanian stálas, Russian ???? (stol, “table”), Russian ???? (stul, “chair”), Serbo-Croatian stol (“table”), Slovene stol (“chair”), Albanian kështallë (“crutch”), Ancient Greek ????? (st?l?, “block of stone used as a prop or buttress to a wall”)), from *steh?- (“to stand”). More at stand.

The medical use derives from sense 2 (seat used for defecation).

Noun

stool (countable and uncountable, plural stools)

1. A seat, especially for one person and without armrests.
   1. A seat for one person without a back or armrests.
   2. A footstool.
   3. (now chiefly dialectal, Scotland) A seat with a back; a chair.
   4. (now chiefly dialectal, Scotland, literally and figuratively) A throne.
2. (obsolete) A close-stool; a seat used for urination and defecation: a chamber pot, commode, outhouse seat, or toilet.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:chamber pot, Thesaurus:toilet, Thesaurus:bathroom

3. (horticulture) A plant that has been cut down until its main stem is close to the ground, resembling a stool, to promote new growth.
4. (chiefly medicine) Feces, excrement.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:feces
5. (chiefly medicine) A production of feces or excrement, an act of defecation, stooling.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:defecation
6. (archaic) A decoy; a portable piece of wood to which a pigeon is fastened to lure wild birds.
7. (nautical) A small channel on the side of a vessel, for the deadeyes of the backstays.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

8. (US, dialect) Material, such as oyster shells, spread on the sea bottom for oyster spat to adhere to.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• chair
• seat

Verb

stool (third-person singular simple present stools, present participle stooling, simple past and past participle stooled)

1. (chiefly medicine) To produce stool: to defecate.
2. (horticulture) To cut down (a plant) until its main stem is close to the ground, resembling a stool, to promote new growth.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:defecate

Etymology 2

Latin stolo. See stolon.

Noun

stool (plural stools)

1. A plant from which layers are propagated by bending its branches into the soil.

Verb

stool (third-person singular simple present stools, present participle stooling, simple past and past participle stooled)

1. (agriculture) To ramify; to tiller, as grain; to shoot out suckers.
   • 1869, Richard D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, chapter 38:

     I worked very hard in the copse of young ash, with my billhook and a shearing-knife; cutting out the saplings where they stooled too close together, making spars to keep for thatching, wall-crooks to drive into the cob, stiles for close sheep hurdles, and handles for rakes, and hoes, and two-bills, of the larger and straighter stuff.

References

Anagrams

• loots, lotos, sloot, sotol, tools, tosol

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stul/

Noun

stool m or f (plural stools)

1. (Canada, slang, derogatory) A denouncer or whistleblower; a stoolie.

Derived terms

• stooleux

English

Noun

tabouret (plural tabourets)

1. Alternative spelling of taboret

Anagrams

• obturate

French

Etymology

From Old French tabour + -et.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ta.bu.??/

Noun

tabouret m (plural tabourets)

1. stool
2. footstool

Descendants

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• brouetta