Thomas Chippendale, 1754, a French commode table
29 July 2024 (Addendum, 31 July 2024)
For many Americans, the primary sense of commode is that of a euphemism for a toilet. But they may encounter a very different meaning in the context of antique furniture, where a commode is an ornate chest of drawers. And the word has other, now historical, meanings of a woman’s wig or that of a madam or female pimp. This may seem an odd collection of meanings at first, but an examination of the word’s history makes sense of it.
English borrowed commode from French, which inherited it from the Latin commodum, meaning an opportunity or thing of advantage or profit. The Latin is also the source of commodity.
Commode first appears in English in the late seventeenth century in the sense of a tall headdress or wig built upon a wire frame, a fontange—think of the elaborate women’s wigs of the court of Louis XIV. It appears in a dialogue, “The Militant Couple,” written by George Villiers, the second duke of Buckingham (1628–87) and published in a posthumous 1704 collection of his works, along with works of others of his era:
Sir John extreamly provok’d at something my Lady had said to him, swore and blunder’d like a Heroe in one of our Modern Tragedies. My Lady, on her side, exercised her Lungs with equal Vigour, and was no less Obstreperous. At last the Knight, unable to contain himself any longer, struck of [sic] her Commode, which Courtesie her Ladyship immediately requited, by throwing Sir John’s Periwigg upon the fire.
That same collection contains a poem, “Upon an Old Affected Court Lady,” by Fleetwood Sheppard (1634–98) that uses the word:
This goodly Goose, all feather’d like a Jay,
So gravely vain, and so demurely gay,
Last Night, to grace the Court, did over-load
Her bald Buff-forehead with a high Commode.
In the eighteenth century, commode could also be used to mean a female pimp or procurer. We see this use in Colley Cibber’s 1725 play Cæsar in Ægypt:
Was it not Bold, front stated Rules to Rove,
And make the Tragic Muse commode to Love?
A bit later in the eighteenth century we see commode being used to refer to an ornate, waist-high chest of drawers, a style that originated in France. This appears to be a reborrowing of the word from French. Cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale wrote of and included drawings of commodes in his 1754 The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director:
Plate XLVII
Is a French Commode Table, with doors or drawers in front, and drawers at each end; the middle part may be made with sliding shelves to hold cloaths [sic]. This Commode, made by a skillful workman, and of fine wood, will give great satisfaction; the feet at each end are different for better choice. A is the half plan; B the end drawer, &c. the mouldings are at large on the right hand.
The connection to toilets is in place by the beginning of the next century, when commode was also used to refer to piece of furniture with a different purpose, a cupboard containing a chamber pot, a close-stool. Courtier and army officer William Dyott writes in his diary for 21 April 1802:
There is no such thing as a garden or even backyard to any house in Cadiz, and the commode is always at the top of the house.
And in the twentieth century, American usage transferred this sense from a piece of cabinetry to the flush toilet. Here’s a classified real estate advertisement from the Dallas Morning News of 14 February 1926:
Small Two-Story Munger Home, Good Location, Good Condition
This place has a very attractive living-room and dining-room, extra nice breakfast-room and kitchen. Lavatory and commode downstairs, four good size bedrooms and bath upstairs. South front, location arrangements and improvements are extra good Price $15,500.
A little bit of research to supply the historical context and the odd collection of meanings makes sense.
Addendum (31 July 2024): Lexicographer Jonathan Green communicated the following anecdote of uncertain origin (perhaps to be found in an old book of jokes or in someone’s familial lore):
An aged French aristo, medal-bedecked résistante was hospitalized (private room) in a London clinic. Enter a brisk nurse, who says, “Madame, have you been on the commode? Please do it now.” The nurse then leaves the room. Mme. X is nonplussed. Finally, she spots a chest of drawer and drags her aged bones from bed and across the room. She manages, after several tries, to gain a seat on top—she's tough and this is hardly fighting the Wehrmacht—and is sitting (no, just sitting) there when nurse returns. Much national incomprehension ensues.
Sources:
Chippendale, Thomas. The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director. London: 1754, 13. Internet Archive.
Cibber, Colley. “Epilogue.” Cæsar in Ægypt. London: John Watts, 1725, 78. Gale Primary Sources: Eighteenth Century Collections Online.
Classified ad. Dallas Morning News (Texas), 14 February 1926, section 6, 11/2. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Dyott, William. Diary entry for 21 April 1802. In Reginald W. Jeffrey, ed. Dyott’s Diary, vol. 1 of 2. London: Archibald Constable, 1907, 198. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Lewis, Charlton T. and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1879. s.v. commodus. Database of Latin Dictionaries.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, January 2018, commode, n.; March 2017, night commode, n.
Villiers, George, Second Duke of Buckingham (1628–87). “The Militant Couple” (a dialogue). In Miscellaneous Works, second edition, vol. 1 of 2. London: S. Briscoe, 1704, 82, 239. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Image credit: Thomas Chippendale, 1754. Plate XLVII, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director. Internet Archive. Public domain image.