cubicle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cubicle,^[2] borrowed from Latin cubiculum (“bedchamber”),^[3][4][2][5] from cubō (“to lie down, recline”)^[3][4][5][6] and the suffix -culum, forming nouns of place.^[7][8] Etymonline mentions a possible root Proto-Indo-European *kub-, with Celtic cognates such as Middle Welsh kyscu (“to sleep”), Middle Cornish koska and Middle Breton cousquet, but notes that de Vaan calls the Latin verb's origin uncertain.^[5] Klein and Barnhart connect the verb with a root meaning to bend, which also gave hip and cubit.^[8][9] The same Latin verb lies behind concubine, incubate and incumbent.^[10][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bedchamber or small room: about 1450, in Capgrave, of a body buried secretly in a cubicle undir þe ground.^[2][9] The OED's first example is Caxton's Golden Legend (1483).^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the general sense "bedroom" the word fell out of use in the 16th century.^[3][11][9] It was revived in the 19th century, by 1858, especially in English public schools, for one of the small sleeping compartments partitioned off in a dormitory.^{[5][3][9][12]} From this came, in the 20th century, any small partitioned space for one or two people, such as a library carrel and later an office workstation, attested by 1926,^[9][5][11] and in electrical engineering a compartment for switchgear (1911).^[3] Cresswell notes that a cubicle was at first a place for lying down.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – a small room, a bedchamber.^[2][9]
• 1483 – bedchamber, in Caxton (obsolete in this sense after the 16th century).^[3]
• 1858 – a sleeping compartment in a dormitory.^[5]
• 1911 – a compartment for electrical switchgear.^[3]
• 1926 – any small partitioned space.^[9][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small partly or fully enclosed space partitioned off from a larger room, as for working, changing or studying: a changing cubicle at the pool.^[13][14][11]
2. A sleeping compartment partitioned off in a dormitory.^[13][14][3]
3. A carrel in a library.^[13][11]
4. A compartment housing electrical switchgear.^[3][11]
5. A stall in a cattle shed where a single animal can lie.^[14]
6. (obsolete) A bedroom.^[3][11]

Related words

• concubine
• incubate
• incumbent
• succumb
• cubit

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins