dormitory

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dormitorie,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin dormītōrium (“sleeping place”),^{[4][5][3][6][7]} the neuter of dormītōrius (“of sleep”) used as a noun,^[4][3][6] from dormītus, the past participle of dormiō (“to sleep”).^[3][5] Barnhart thinks the borrowing was possibly helped by Old French dormitoire,^[8] and the OED compares the obsolete French word.^[4] Middle English already had dortour from about 1300, from the vernacular Old French form dortor,^[5][2] beside dortoir.^[2][9] Old English had slæpern (“dormitory”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The dormitory of a monastery or nunnery: the Middle English Dictionary's first quotations are from visitation records of 1440–41, and Barnhart dates the word to 1440.^[2][8] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century, originally of monasteries,^[5] and the OED's first record is from 1485, in Caxton's translation of the story of Charlemagne.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word began as the sleeping hall of a religious house,^[5][2] and the OED extends its first sense to any sleeping room, especially one with many beds, or a building divided into cells for the inmates of an institution.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as a place to sleep in, commonly a room with many beds.^[10] In the 17th century it was used figuratively of a resting place and of a burial place, a sense that died out in the 19th century.^[4] The American sense, a building where college students live, is dated by Etymonline to 1718^[5] and by the OED to 1865.^[4] The British use for a town or suburb whose residents work in a city, chiefly attributive, as in dormitory town, is recorded from 1923.^[4][7]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – the earlier Middle English dortour, a monastic dormitory.^[5][2]
• 1440 – dormytorye, the dormitory of a monastery or nunnery.^[2][8] The OED's first record is from 1485.^[4]
• 1634 – figuratively, a resting place; also a burial place (obsolete by 1891).^[4]
• 1718 – a residence hall of a college.^[5] The OED dates this American sense to 1865.^[4]
• 1923 – a suburb or town where commuters live.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large room with several beds, as in a boarding school or other institution.^[7][11][4]
2. (US) A building at a college or university in which students live; a hall of residence: She moved out of the dormitory in her third year.^[7][11][4]
3. (British) Used before a noun of a town or suburb from which most residents commute to work elsewhere: a dormitory town.^[7][4]
4. (obsolete, 1634–1891) A burial place; a cemetery or grave.^[4]

Related words

• dormant
• dorm
• dormer

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster