treasury
Pluraltreasuries
- 1Ellipsis of treasury department.
The Treasury announced new sanctions against the shipping companies on Tuesday.
She left her bank job to work as an economist at the Treasury.
Note
As the name of one government's finance department it takes the and a capital T: the Treasury announced, a Treasury spokesperson, where it also works like an adjective before another noun. Written of governments in general it stays lowercase, as in every nation's treasury.
- 2
- 3Ellipsis of treasury bond.
She moved part of her savings into a thirty-year Treasury.
The yield on the thirty-year Treasury climbed after the jobs report.
Note
Clipped from the bond's full name, it counts like any security: an investor buys a thirty-year Treasury and builds a portfolio of Treasuries. Financial writing usually keeps the capital T, borrowed from the government department whose name the bonds carry.
- 4A place where treasure is stored and kept safe.
The cathedral treasury holds jeweled crosses and gold cups from the Middle Ages.
The monks walled up the door to the monastery's treasury when the raiders came.
Similarvault, strongroom
Note
The place meaning runs deep: Ancient Greek thēsaurós already meant 'treasure house', though Latin thēsaurus moved the word onto the treasure itself, and Old French built tresorie on tresor, 'treasure', to name the place again. Middle English took tresorie from there, and it displaced the native Old English word, māþmhūs.
- 5A rich collection of writing or art, such as an anthology of stories or a museum's holdings of prints.
The anthology is a treasury of American short fiction from the last century.
The gallery's print room is a treasury of Japanese woodblock art.
Similarcollection, anthology, trove, storehouse
Less common meaning
- 6A treasure: a store of riches or a thing of great value.
Now since he hath the grace, thus gracelesse be His neighbors sweare he'le swell with treasurie.
1599, W. Kinsayder or Theriomastix [pseudonyms; John Marston], “Totum in Toto”Note
An obsolete use in which the word meant the riches, not the room: John Marston, writing in 1599 as W. Kinsayder, has a man's neighbors swear he'll 'swell with treasurie'. It is the same slide between place and contents traced in the storehouse meaning. A modern writer who means the riches says treasure.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English tresorie, from Old French tresorie, from tresor (“treasure”), from Latin thēsaurus (“treasure”), from Ancient Greek θησαυρός (thēsaurós, “treasure house”). It replaced the native Old English word māþmhūs.