Refurbishment

How to spell refurbishment

13 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce refurbishment

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does refurbishment mean?

1. nounThe act of cleaning up, repairing, and modernising a building, room, or object to make it look fresh again.

Refurbishment in a sentence

• The hotel closed for a month during its complete refurbishment.

• The office refurbishment included new carpets, lighting, and furniture.

Where does refurbishment come from?

Language of origin: French

The heart of this word is the verb 'furbish', which English took from Old French in the 1300s; the Old French 'forbir' (stem 'forbiss-') meant 'to polish' or 'to clean by rubbing'. That French verb was itself borrowed from a Germanic source, related to Old High German 'furben', meaning 'to clean' or 'to make bright'. For centuries 'furbish' meant literally to scour metal, especially armour and weapons, until they gleamed. The prefix 're-' (meaning 'again') was added to give 'refurbish', the idea of restoring something to a fresh, bright condition, and the noun 'refurbishment' followed by attaching the suffix '-ment', which turns a verb into the name of an action or its result. The slightly old-fashioned middle, the rarely written 'furbish', is the part that trips writers, since the everyday word is almost always seen with its 're-' attached.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• furbish (to polish, brighten up)
• -ment (noun-forming suffix)