armchair
/ˈɑɹmt͡ʃɛɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.21 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An upholstered chair without armrests intended for the living room
adj
Remote from actual involvement (including cases where a person has retired from previously active involvement).
adj
Unqualified or uninformed but yet giving advice, especially on technical issues, such as law, architecture, medicine, military theory, or sports; relating to such advice.
Derogatory
verb
To create based on theory or general knowledge rather than data.
Example Sentences
- "I collapsed into an armchair."
- "There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker arm-chairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had also emerged some Indian clubs,[…]; and all these articles[…]made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished."
- "[W]hen he [Pooh] suddenly saw Piglet sitting in his best arm-chair, he could only stand there rubbing his head and wondering whose house he was in."
- "Evaluating possible etymologies requires a significant amount of knowledge about the speakers' lived reality […] for instance, the semantic connection between some species of plant and its use in traditional medicine may be fully transparent to a native speaker, but harder to understand from the perspective of a linguist's armchair."
- "armchair travels"
- "These days I'm an armchair detective."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- Proto-Indo-European *h₂érmos Proto-Germanic *armaz Proto-West Germanic *arm Old English earm Middle English arm English arm Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥-th₂der.? Proto-Hellenic *kətá Ancient Greek κατά (katá) Proto-Indo-European *sed-der. Proto-Indo-European *sedreh₂ Proto-Hellenic *hédrā Ancient Greek ἕδρα (hédra) Ancient Greek κᾰθέδρᾱ (kăthédrā)bor. Latin cathedrader. Old French chaierebor. Middle English chayere English chair English armchair From arm + chair.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɑɹmt͡ʃɛɚ/
- British English: /ˈɑː(ɹ)mtʃɛə(ɹ)/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Phrases
armchair copy
armchair critic
armchair criticism
armchair general
armchair hawk
armchair linguistics
armchair psychologist
armchair psychology