chore

See also: -chore, chóre, and Chöre

English

Etymology 1

From earlier char, from Middle English charr, charre, cherre (“odd job, turn, occasion, business”), from Old English ċerr, ċierr (“a turn”), from ċierran (“to turn”), from Proto-Germanic *karzijaną (“to turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *gers- (“to bend, turn”).

Cognate with Dutch keer (“time; turn; occasion”), German Kehre (“a turn; bend; wind; back-flip; u-turn”). Also related to Saterland Frisian kiere, käire (“to turn”), Old Saxon kērian, Old High German chēran (“to turn”) (German kehren (“to turn”), Dutch keren (“to turn”)). See also char.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: chô, IPA^(key): /tʃɔː/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: chôr, IPA^(key): /tʃɔɹ/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: chōr, IPA^(key): /tʃo(ː)ɹ/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /tʃoə/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)

Noun

chore (plural chores)

1. A task, especially a difficult, unpleasant, or routine one.

   Washing dishes is a chore, but we cannot just stop eating.

   The children were made to do their daily chores before being allowed to play games.

   I used to enjoy being self-employed, but it's become a bit of a chore recently.

   • 1978, Nixon, Richard, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon‎^[1], Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, LCCN 77-87793, OCLC 760525066, OL 7561812M, page 418:

     Shorty after his nomination as Chief Justice was announced, it came to light that while on the Court, Fortas, a close friend of Johnson's, had performed a number of personal and political chores for him. This was a clear violation of the principle of separation of powers.

Derived terms

• choreful
• choreless
• chorelike
• choresome
• chore wheel

Translations

a difficult, unpleasant, or routine task

• Bulgarian: неприя́тна рабо́та (neprijátna rabóta)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 家務 (zh), 家务 (zh) (jiāwù) (homework), 苦差事 (zh) (kǔchāishi) (drudgery)

• Dutch: taak (nl) f
• Esperanto: farotaĵo
• Finnish: taloustyö (fi), askare (fi), puuha (fi)
• French: corvée (fr) f, tâche (fr) f
• German: leidige Aufgabe f, lästige Pflicht f, Hausarbeit (de) f (homework), häusliche Arbeit f
• Greek: αγγαρεία (el) f (angareía)
• Hebrew: מטלה‎ (he)
• Hungarian: házimunka (hu) sg
• Ido: tasketo

• Italian: corvè f
• Japanese: 雑用 (ja) (ざつよう, zatsuyō), 雑務 (ja) (ざつむ, zatsumu)
• Korean: 가사(家事) (ko) (gasa), 허드렛일 (heodeurejil)
• Norwegian: hverdagsrutine m, plikt (no) m
• Polish: zadanie (pl) n
• Portuguese: tarefa (pt)
• Romanian: muncă casnică f
• Russian: рути́нная рабо́та f (rutínnaja rabóta), дома́шняя рабо́та (ru) f (domášnjaja rabóta) (homework), неприя́тная рабо́та f (neprijátnaja rabóta) (unpleasant task), обя́занность (ru) f (objázannostʹ) (duty)
• Spanish: mandado (es), quehacer (es), tarea (es)
• Swedish: (tråkigt) rutinarbete n, (tråkig) rutinuppgift c
• Telugu: చాకిరీ (te) (cākirī)

Verb

chore (third-person singular simple present chores, present participle choring, simple past and past participle chored)

1. (US, dated) To do chores.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2022), “chore”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Etymology 2

Possibly derived from Romani ćor (“thief”), see also Geordie word chor.

Alternative forms

• chor (Geordie)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: chô, IPA^(key): /tʃɔː/
• (General American) enPR: chôr, IPA^(key): /tʃɔɹ/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: chōr, IPA^(key): /tʃo(ː)ɹ/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /tʃoə/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)

Verb

chore (third-person singular simple present chores, present participle choring, simple past and past participle chored)

2. (Britain, informal) To steal.

Synonyms

• steal (standard English)
• thieve (standard English)
• twoc (Geordie)

Etymology 3

Noun

chore (plural chores)

1. (obsolete) A choir or chorus.
   • 1640, Ben Jonson, Underwood

     On every wall, and sung where e'er I walk. I number these, as being of the chore

Anagrams

• Roche, ocher, ochre, roche

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Latin

Noun

chore

1. vocative singular of chorus

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Lower Sorbian

Adjective

chore

1. Superseded spelling of chóre.

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Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxɔ.rɛ/
• Rhymes: -ɔrɛ
• Syllabification: cho‧re

Adjective

chore

1. inflection of chory:
   1. neuter nominative/accusative/vocative singular
   2. nonvirile nominative/accusative/vocative plural

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Portuguese

Verb

chore

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of chorar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of chorar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of chorar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of chorar