I have a furniture (as in the picture below) that based on Wikipedia is called in English "chest of drawers", but it seems to me too long name for such furniture. Is there a shorter name for that in the UK (not in north America) or people really call it "chest of drawers" when they refer to it in everyday life?
Second, why not to call it "drawers chest", it sounds simpler and shorter apparently and also grammatically correct. Isn't it?
Best Answer
"Chest of drawers" is its name. It is quite a long name for a common item, but that is what it is called. It has been around for a long time, the expression has been in use since 1670 (etymonline)
Similar items include "tallboy" (a tall chest with drawers in a column), A dresser (usually a bit more than just a chest of drawers, with a top part for display). A bureau (a combination of drawers and a writing desk). But there is no word that means exactly the same as "chest of drawers".
In many situations you don't need the full name.
There are similar examples of other things named this way when the item is a "container" of some sort.
(ngrams searches for card pack and pack of cards "Card pack tends to refer to specialised packs "The game contains an 8 sided die and a card pack showing countries of the world..."
drawer chest and chest of drawer "drawer chest" nearly always phrases such as "a five-drawer chest".
And remember all the collective nouns: