burel

Definite, from Old French burel, bu(i)re (fem), 'brown, red', normally taken to be from a vulgar Latin *bureus < Lat. burrus 'red', a borrowing of Greek πυρρόϛ 'tawny, brownish, reddish'; or possibly a direct diminutive of bure (q.v.) 'coarse (reddish/brownish) cloth'. Cognate words in several Romance languages have connotations between dark red and brown, and it is possible that the original bure/burel cloth was of this colour. Derivatives of Latin burrus were also used in various Romance languages for brownish animal hairs and textiles made thereof; see also bure, birrettum, birrus, beret. A burel-type cloth was used as baize to cover writing desks, and so the name was transferred hence, giving Mod. Fr. bureau, re-borrowed into English in this new sense. However, though that usage can be traced to the medieval period in continental French sources, it does not appear in Anglo-French; Mod. English bureau 'writing desk' and derived senses date from the eighteenth century. The heraldic sense of 'barred' may be of different origin; bure, birre in Anglo-French could also mean 'a strip of cloth' (whether or not the cloth was of the same sort as burel) and the sense or forms have perhaps become conflated with barry (q.v.); see further discussion at burlé and burlure.