Etymology

refurbish

R1E1F4U1R1B3I1S1H4

Today it means: To rebuild or replenish with entirely new material; to restore to original (or better) working order and appearance; to renovate. Full definition →

Middle English furbishen ← Middle French forbir ← Frankish *furbēn
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Frankish · derived from*furbēn“to clean, polish”
  2. Middle French · derived fromforbir“to clean, polish”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromfurbishen
  4. English todayrefurbish

1605, from re- + furbish, from Middle English furbishen, from Middle French forbir (stem furbiss-, “to clean, polish”), from Frankish *furbēn (“to clean, polish”).

Words from the same roots

Frankish*furbēn all →

furbish

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.