tallboy

Tallboy is another transparent English compound, like sideboard, that says exactly what it means: a tall piece of furniture. The term emerged in the late seventeenth century. In its earliest use, a 'tallboy' could refer to a tall-stemmed wine glass, a tall mug of beer, or a tall piece of furniture. The word was applied to anything taller than its usual version. Specificity came later.

The furniture tallboy — a chest-on-chest, or a chest of drawers mounted on top of a lower chest or stand — became the word's primary meaning by the eighteenth century. The form solved a problem: in era before built-in closets, clothing storage required surface area, and stacking two chests saved floor space. The tallboy could reach six feet or more, requiring a stepladder to access the top drawers.

American English uses 'highboy' for a tall chest on legs and 'lowboy' for its shorter counterpart, while 'tallboy' in American usage more often refers to the chest-on-chest form. British English uses 'tallboy' more broadly. The terminology is confused because the furniture forms evolved differently in England and America, and the same word was applied to different objects on different continents.

During World War II, the British Royal Air Force named a 12,000-pound bomb the 'Tallboy,' designed by Barnes Wallis to penetrate hardened targets through seismic shock. The bomb that sank the Tirpitz in 1944 shared its name with bedroom furniture. The connection was purely visual: both were tall and narrow. The word proved versatile enough to name both a drawer for underwear and a weapon of mass destruction.