Forms: α. 5–7 ioyned, ioyn’d, ioynd, ioin’d s. (with or without hyphen: see forms of STOOL); β. 7 joyne-stoole; γ. 6–7 ioynt, 8 joynt-, 7–9 joint-stool. [In sense 1, orig. joined stool. In sense 2, f. JOINT sb. 4.]
1. A stool made of parts joined or fitted together; a stool made by a joiner, as distinguished from one of more clumsy workmanship. (Cf. JOINED 2.) Obs. exc. Hist.
Frequently mentioned in 16–18th c. as an article of furniture; also in allusive or proverbial phrases expressing disparagement or ridicule, of which the precise explanation is lost.
1434. E. E. Wills (1882), 102. Also a litil Ioyned stoll for a child, & a nother Ioyned stoll, large for to sitte on, whanne he cometh to mannes state.
1512. Nottingham Rec., III. 114. Duo scabella vocata joyned stoles.
1594. Lyly, Moth. Bombie, IV. ii. Accius. You neede not be so lustie: you are not so honest. Selina. I crie you mercie, I tooke you for a ioynt stoole.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., II. i. 199. Kath. I knew you at the first, You were a mouable. Petr. Why, what’s a mouable? Kath. A ioyn’d stoole.
1611. Cotgr., Selle,… any illfauored, ordinarie … stoole, of a cheaper sort then the ioyned, or buffet-stoole.
1634. Withal’s Dict., 553. Ante hoc te cornua habere putabam, I cry you mercy, I tooke you for a joynd stoole.
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. III.), II. xii. Fitter to be read upon a Joyne-stoole, than pronounced at a Tribunall.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, III. i. He used to lay chairs and joint-stools in their way, that they might break their noses by falling over them.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 19. Joint-stools were then created; on three legs Upborne they stood. Three legs upholding firm A massy slab, in fashion square or round.
1820. Scott, Monast., xv. As passive an instrument of my accommodation as this ill-made and rugged joint-stool on which I sit.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, ii. 9. I seated myself on a joint-stool on the deck.
2. Mech. ‘A block holding up the ends of parts which belong in apposition, as railway rails, ways of vessels, etc.’ (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875).
