Etymologically
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roommate

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:24. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • US: /ˈɹu(m)ˌmeɪt/[1]

Etymology

A compound of room and mate (a companion),[2][3][4] formed in American English;[2][4] it is also written with a hyphen or as separate words.[2][5] The short form roomie is recorded by 1918.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who shares a room with another: 1789, in William Dunlap's play The Father, printed in the Massachusetts Magazine.[3][2] Merriam-Webster gives an earlier first date, 1770,[6] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1780–90.[4]

Semantic evolution

The OED defines a roommate as someone who occupies the same room, flat or house as another,[3] and the Historical Thesaurus files it among the words for lodgers in someone else's house.[7] British dictionaries keep the first sense for sharing a single room, as in a college residence,[8][9] and label the wider sense, sharing an apartment or house, as North American;[8][9][10] the British equivalent is flatmate.[8] The Macquarie Dictionary likewise marks the house-sharing sense as chiefly American.[5] The World Book Dictionary records an informal use for a person who lives with a partner without being married.[11]

Timeline

  • 1770 – first known use, according to Merriam-Webster.[6]
  • 1789 – a person who shares a room;[3][2] 1780–90 in Dictionary.com.[4]
  • 1918 – the short form roomie.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A person who shares a room, especially a bedroom in a college or hostel, with another: My roommate in the first year was a chemistry student.
  2. (chiefly North American) A person who shares an apartment or house with another; a flatmate.
  • roomer
  • rooming house
  • flatmate
  • comrade

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b The Macquarie Dictionary (2013), 6th ed., Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  8. ^ a b c Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2009), 5th ed., Harlow: Pearson Longman
  9. ^ a b Allen, Robert, ed. (2007), The Penguin English Dictionary, 3rd ed., London: Penguin
  10. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  11. ^ The World Book Dictionary (2015), Chicago: World Book