Other forms: furnished, furnishing, furnishes
To furnish is to fit a place out with furniture, or to supply something. Furnish a flat, furnished accommodation, furnish the details.
Furnished and unfurnished are the two standard categories in renting, and part-furnished sits between them. The supplying sense is formal and takes with: furnish us with the documents. Note furnishings, meaning the furniture and fittings together; and that furnish comes from a Frankish word meaning to complete, so furnishing a room is finishing it.
1verbfurnishTo fit a place out with furniture.
“They furnished the flat with cheap second-hand chairs and a sofa from a friend.”
2verbsupplyTo supply something formally.
“The bank furnished the police with details of every payment.”
furnish is a fitting out or supplying.
Old French furnir comes from Frankish frumjan, to complete or carry out. The German frommen and the English frame come from the same root about furthering.
Proto-Indo-European
*promo- — front, forward
Proto-Germanic
*frumjaną — to further, promote
Frankish
*frumjan — to complete, execute
Old French
furniss-
Middle English
furnysshen
English, today
furnish
From Middle English furnysshen, from Old French furniss-, stem of certain parts of furnir, fornir (Modern French fournir), from gem, from Frankish frumjan (“to complete, execute”), from Proto-Germanic frumjaną (“to further, promote”), from Proto-Indo-European promo- (“front, forward”). Cognate with Old High German frumjan (“to perform, provide”), Old High German fruma (“utility, gain”), Old English fremu (“profit, advantage”), Old English fremian (“to promote, perform”). More at frame, frim.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA