dépôt

Depot comes from the French dépôt (a deposit, a storehouse, a station), from the Latin dēpositum (something laid down), from dēpōnere (to lay down, to put aside). The word entered English in the eighteenth century. A depot is a place where things are deposited — left, stored, or distributed. The word is passive: a depot receives. A market sells. A warehouse stores. A depot is where things arrive and wait.

The military adopted depot earliest in English. An army depot was a supply base — a place where weapons, ammunition, food, and equipment were deposited for distribution to troops. The word carried logistical weight: a depot was the infrastructure behind the army. Without depots, armies could not campaign. Napoleon's famous observation that 'an army marches on its stomach' was really about depots.

Railroad depots — the word Americans used for railway stations throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — brought the word into common speech. A railroad depot was where passengers and freight were deposited: dropped off, picked up, transferred. The word 'station' eventually replaced 'depot' in most American usage, but 'depot' persists in smaller towns and in the names of converted historical buildings.

The Home Depot, founded in 1978, used the word to suggest a large supply base for home improvement materials. The military-logistical connotation — a place with serious quantities of supplies — was the point. The word traveled from Roman deposits to military supply bases to railway stations to hardware superstores.