"Refurbished" looks and sounds as though, like "disturbed", it is made of an obvious prefix and a root nobody ever heard of, possibly that isn't even real. (Ever seen a brand new shiny car referred to as "furbished"?) Actually furbished is a legitimate word, though it isn't nearly as commonly used as its repetition.
"Disturb" at least has turbine and turbulent using the same root. Is there anything else that uses "furbish"?
I have to confess a negative reaction to "refurbish". As Red Skelton used to say "You just don't
look right to me."
I didn't find actual etymology, wofa (good question, by the way), but look what I found in Atomica:
Translations for: Refurbish
Nederlands (Dutch)
opknappen, renoveren
Français (French)
rénover, rafistoler
Deutsch (German)
v. - renovieren, aufpolieren
Ελληνική (Greek)
v. ανακαινίζω, φρεσκάρω, ξαναγυαλίζω
Italiano (Italian)
rinnovare, rinfrescare
Português (Portuguese)
v. - renovar, reformar, polir
Русский (Russian)
подремонтировать
Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - restaurar
Svenska (Swedish)
v. - putsa upp, renovera
中国话 (Simplified Chinese)
v. tr. - 再磨光, 刷新
中國話 (Traditional Chinese)
v. tr. - 再磨光, 刷新
日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 再びみがく, 一新する, 改装する, 磨き直す
العربيه (Arabic)
(فعل) يصقل يجدد
עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - צחצח, ליטש
I have purshased several refurbished pieces of computer equipment, and never felt like I had to
[Svenska (Swedish)
v. -] putsa upp with anything except a better price!
I would say that refurbish is not "ïîäðåìîíòèðîâàòü " in Russian. It's a very clusmy translation, probably by a machine
Now, maahey, that's cheating!
What a fascinating site! Thanks, maahey.
didja try this?
http://www.fantasist.net/wordgen.shtmlpretty good faux-Latin...
...with furbished breath
(furbish ain't from Latin, it's from OHG)
1. To remove rust from (a weapon, armour, etc.); to brighten by rubbing, polish, burnish. Also with up.
1647 WARD Simp. Cobler 70 In heaven..your swords are furbushed and sharpened, by him that made their metall. 1719 DE FOE Crusoe I. xii, I..furbished up one of the..cutlasses. 1791 COWPER Iliad XIII. 415 Corslets furbish'd bright. 1852 HAWTHORNE Tanglewood T., Golden Fleece (1879) 215 As soon as they could furbish up their helmets. 1863 GEO. ELIOT Romola II. xxi, Old arms duly furbished.
fig. 1593 SHAKES. Rich. II, I. iii. 76 With thy blessings steele my Lances point, That it may enter Mowbrayes waxen Coate, And furbish new the name of John a Gaunt.
2. To brush or clean up (anything faded or soiled); to give a new look to (an object either material or immaterial); to do or get up afresh, renovate, revive. Chiefly with up, occas. over.
1687 DRYDEN Hind & P. III. 582 Their ancient houses, running to decay, Are furbish'd up. 1691 WOOD Ath. Oxon. II. 28 The University Statutes..were afterwards corrected, methodized, and furbisht over with excellent Latine. 1715 ROWE Lady Jane Gray III. i, They furbish up their Holy Trumpery. 1774 J. Q. ADAMS in Fam. Lett. (1876) 5, I might be furbishing up my old reading in Law and History. 1837 SOUTHEY Doctor IV. cxxiii. 228 Some part of the furniture was to be furbished, some to be renewed. 1844 DISRAELI Coningsby VIII. iii, What we want..is not to..furbish up old baronies, but to establish great principles.
inflected: 1605 SHAKES. Macb. I. ii. 32 The Norweyan Lord..With furbusht Armes, and new supplyes of men, Began a fresh assault. a1640 BALL Answ. J. Can I. (1642) 90 A new furbishing over of the same broken staffe. 1713 STEELE Englishm. No. 40. 264 These..are lately furbishing up to shine out at some favourable Conjuncture. 1775 S. J. PRATT Liberal Opin. II. 159 For all the furbish'd up stuff it contains. 1839 P. HAWKER Diary (1893) II. 171 Had a general furbish of all the gear and stores. 1875 JOWETT Plato (ed. 2) IV. 438 To this the arts of fulling and..furbishing attend in a number of minute particulars. 1862 Lond. Rev. 30 Aug. 188 The tarnished lace having been subjected to a furbishing process.
(there are earlier citations, back as far as 1382, but those folk culd nae spel.)
This thread really tickled my funny bone! I used to work in the cell phone industry, and we often offered free "refurbished" phones to our customers, as a way of retaining them as customers when they called to cancel their accounts, after losing their phones. (whew, is that a run on sentence, or what?!)
I never had any problem with this procedure, until one day when I had a trouble maker on the phone. He asked me just when was the free, refurbished phone "furbished" initially?
He had me there.......I hadn't a clue!
Troublemaker? Sounds like an ayleur to me [running just fast enough so Jackie won't cuff me-e]
Connie, c'mere a minute--I want to refurbish you...
Well, I guess I am a little tarnished and my handles are a little bent. Be gentle with me...
Oh, you're a little bent, all right!
HUG!
This thread is an example of why I love this board. Until I read this thread I though furbish was what those Furbee toys that were so popular some years ago spoke.
Rouspeteur
then don't read maahey's link...
[grimace]