factory

== English == === Etymology === Probably from factor +‎ -y, although in noun sense 1 (“a place where manufacturing takes place”) apparently influenced strongly by association with Classical Latin fact-, the past participial stem of faciō (“to make”); compare manufactory and Latin factōrium (“an oil press”). In noun sense 8 (“a trading establishment”), originally after Portuguese feitoria. In noun sense 9 (“an invoice or inventory”), probably after obsolete Dutch facture (“bill”); see facture. Compare Dutch factorij, Middle French factorie, Spanish factoría. === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈfæk.tə.ɹi/, /ˈfæk.tɹi/ (General American) IPA(key): /ˈfæk.tɚ.i/, /ˈfæk.tɹi/ Rhymes: -æktəɹi, -æktɹi === Noun === factory (plural factories) A building or other place where manufacturing takes place. [from 17th c.] Synonym: manufactory (UK, slang) A police station. [from 19th c.] A device or process that produces or manufactures something. A factory farm. (programming) In a computer program or library, a function, method, etc. which creates an object. (attributive) The original state of an electronic device, as it was when it came from the manufacturer. (chiefly Scotland, now rare) The position or state of being a factor. [from 16th c.] (historical) A trading establishment, especially set up by merchants working in a foreign country. [from 16th c.] 1792, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 184: We had here his curate, Mr. Furley, who had been nine years chaplain to the English factory at St. Petersburg […] . (obsolete) An invoice or inventory. ==== Hyponyms ==== (trading establishment): fondaco; see also trading post, colony ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== ==== Descendants ==== Tok Pisin: faktori → Welsh: ffatri ==== Translations ==== === Adjective === factory (not comparable) (colloquial, of a configuration, part, etc.) Having come from the factory in the state it is currently in; original, stock. === References === === Further reading === “factory”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “factory”, in The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.