Why Do We Call It A Dresser?

If insomnia is keeping you from getting a good eight hours of sleep, you might find yourself not counting sheep, but instead gazing around your bedroom pondering why we call different pieces of furniture by their names. An armoire has a French ring to it, a wardrobe sounds like somewhere we'd store robes, and a dresser? It certainly has something to do with getting dressed, right? However, the dresser, that piece of bedroom furniture you might find at the thrift store, takes its name not from the act of getting clothed, but from the daily ritual of placing food on a table.

Have you ever noticed that the piece of furniture we call a dresser in the bedroom looks awfully similar to the piece of furniture we call a sideboard when it's in a kitchen or dining room? Before they got moved into bedrooms in the 1800s, these pieces of furniture were used to prepare food, which is the reason why we call it a dresser — food was "dressed" there. Like that look-a-like furnishing, the sideboard, dressers were also used to serve food. In fact, this piece of furniture was thought of in connection to food service for 500 years before it started being associated with clothing.

Dressers are bedroom storage solutions that usually contain up to nine drawers, and are wider than they are tall, typically reaching no more than 35 inches in height. They're usually made of wood, but can also be built from particleboard. This type of furniture may come with a mirror placed behind the top surface, where we can situate a jewelry box or tray of grooming supplies. Since dressers can be up to 70 inches wide, they often look better in larger bedrooms.

In comparison, a chest of drawers is primarily used for vertical storage, making it a better choice for smaller bedrooms. Chest of drawers are typically no more than 38 inches wide, and since they're taller than dressers, their top surfaces aren't convenient for placing knickknacks or personal grooming tools. However, an advantage of the chest of drawers over the dresser is that it's a good choice to use for storage in other rooms of the home.

Now that you know why we call a dresser by its name, keep in mind that vocabulary in the English language can have different meanings depending on where it's spoken. In fact, the word in question has kept its kitchen associations in the U.K. Whatever you want to call these types of furniture, now that you've scratched your etymological itch, it's time to start daydreaming about refinishing a vintage dresser, which is one way to upgrade your home on a budget.