Borrowed from French console (“bracket”, noun), from consoler (“to console, to comfort”, verb). Sense of “bracket” either due to a bracket alleviating the load, or due to brackets being decorated with the Christian figure of a consolateur (“consoler”), itself perhaps a pun on the first sense (alleviating load). Originally used for the bracket itself, then for wall-mounted tables (mounted with a bracket), then for free-standing tables placed against a wall. Use for control system dates at least to 1880s for an “organ console”; use for electrical or electronic control systems dates at least to 1930s in radio, television, and system control, particularly as “mixer console” or “control console”, attached to an equipment rack. This was popularized in computers by mainframes such as the IBM 704 (1954) in terms such as “operator’s console” or “console typewriter”, and then generalized to any attached equipment, particularly for user interaction. The automotive sense harks back to earlier use as “support”.
A stand-alone cabinet designed to stand on the floor; especially, one integrated with home entertainment equipment, such as a TV or stereo system.
The film's music blared from the console.
2
A desk-like cabinet, table, or stand upon which controls, instruments, and displays are mounted.
3
An instrument with displays and an input device that is used to monitor and control an electronic system.
The operating console of the new Glasgow Central cabin is divided into four sections, each at an angle to each other and each of which is normally under one signalman's control; [...]1961 March, “The new Glasgow Central signalbox”, in Trains Illustrated, page 177:
4
The keyboard and screen of a computer or other electronic device.
5
Abbreviation, Ellipsis Ellipsis of video game console.
Consoles continue to gain traction in the video game market.
I rarely play FPS on a PC these days. I'm lazy and it's just so much easier to stick on Halo or Modern Warfare 2 on a console. Plus after a day in front of a PC I don't necessarily want to spend an evening in front of one.2010 September 21, Greg Howson, “Are consoles really better than PCs at shooter games?”, in The Guardian:
On an attractive console with two winged putti as supporters [...] is a marriage coat of arms : Dexter, the Paoli arms : Gules (base), a bend azure charged with five lilies gules, and or (chief); Sinister, the[…]1919, Allan Marquand, Robbia Heraldry, page 60:
The only authentic reference for the tincture of the shield still in existence is the armorial console in Jacques Coeur's chapel[…]1994, James H. Marrow, François Avril, The Hours of Simon de Varie, Getty Publications, →ISBN, page 134:
Etymology Borrowed from French consoler, from Latin cōnsōlor (“to console, offer solace”), root from Proto-Indo-European *selh₂- (“mercy, comfort”) (whence also solace).
1
To comfort (someone) in a time of grief, disappointment, etc.
However, she contained herself as best she might, consoled by the reflection that her reasoning had been justified by events.1922, Agatha Christie, The Secret Adversary, Chapter 9:
1856: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter X, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling "Do you remember, my friend, that I went to Tostes once when you had just lost your first deceased? I consoled you at that time. I thought of something to say then, but now—" Then, with a loud groan that shook his whole chest, "Ah! this is the end for me, do you see! I saw my wife go, then my son, and now to-day it's my daughter."