Thanks to the coronavirus job retention scheme, many employees have been “furloughed” on 80% of their salary during lockdown. Presumably this obscure term is preferred to “kept on with most of their pay” simply for brevity, but where does it come from?

Originally an importation from Dutch, and spelled “vorloffe” or “fore-loofe” in the 17th century, “furlough” derives from the German military term for a soldier’s permit to be absent from duty: literally, “for leave”. A century later it began to be used in other contexts for any kind of time off (often, joshingly, from family duties). In employment terms, it has usually meant a specific period of absence with continued salary, though in the US, civilian furloughs have typically meant enforced leave without pay, as in the 2013 public-sector shutdown after Congressional budget cuts.

More poetically, in one of his 1817 Lay Sermons, Coleridge describes a dream of meeting a melancholy pilgrim, who in turn recounts a vision he experienced during “one of those short furlows from the service of the body, which the soul may sometimes obtain”. In these times, especially, such a spiritual furlough might seem a consummation devoutly to be wished.

• Steven Poole’s A Word for Every Day of the Year is published by Quercus.