Commode

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Commode is a versatile word in furniture and everyday speech. It most often refers to a piece of furniture with drawers and shelves—a chest of drawers, sometimes with a marble top and ormolu (gilded bronze) handles. In the drawing room, this type could be a chiffonier, a tall sideboard. The term has also meant a washstand, a stand with a basin and jug and space behind doors for a chamber pot, a reminder of times before indoor plumbing.

In British English, commode can mean a commode chair—often on wheels and enclosing a chamber pot—used in hospitals and by people who need help with toileting. In American English, commode is a colloquial term for a flush toilet.

The word comes from the French commode, from commodus meaning convenient, rooted in Latin. It appeared in French furniture around 1700, when a commode was a low cabinet or chest of drawers, wider than tall, usually veneered with fine woods and often topped with marble. It was designed to sit at the height of the dado rail and was a centerpiece in a room, sometimes flanked by a mirror or by a pair of similar pieces.

Styles varied: Rococo bombé commodes with curved surfaces; neoclassical Louis XVI pieces with straight lines and deep drawers; some included encoignures (side cabinets) or were called commode à l’anglaise if the shelves were open. Early commodes could also be simple painted oak or walnut chests in provincial French style.

Over time, English speakers broadened the term to cover any furniture with a serpentine front, including certain dressing chests or even some chairs.