box office
See also: box-office
English
Alternative forms
- box-office
- boxoffice (less common)
Etymology
1786,[1] presumably from sales of boxes, box seats (“separated private seating”).[2][3] Sense of “total sales” from 1904.[1]
Folk etymology is that this derives from Elizabethan theatre, where theater admission was collected in a box attached to a long stick, passed around the audience.[2][3] However, first attestation is over a century later (theaters were closed in 1642), making this highly unlikely.
Pronunciation
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- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL. enPR: bäksʹä'fĭs, IPA(key): /ˈbɑksˌɑfɪs/
Noun
box office (countable and uncountable, plural box offices)
- (countable, film, theater) A place where tickets are sold in a theatre/theater or cinema.
- (uncountable, by extension, film) the total amount of money paid by people worldwide to watch a movie at cinemas/movie theaters.
Synonyms
- (place where tickets are sold): ticket office, ticket window
Derived terms
Derived terms
Translations
ticket office
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See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “box office”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 William and Mary Morris, Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Robert Hendrickson, Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Facts on File, New York, 1997
- “Re: Box office, box seat”, The Phrase Finder, ESC, March 22, 2002