5 ms·

I have honestly never heard of a bedroom-cum-office. Can someone explain?

wavefunction 12y ago
A bedroom that is also "nominally" an office by virtue of its usage as such.
solutionyogi 12y ago
It means the person using the given room as both bedroom and office. The usage of word 'cum' is very common in India. When I first arrived in US, I used to get lot of weird looks from people, I have finally stopped using it. See: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/26488/how-does-one-use-the-latin-word-cum-in-a-sentence http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/26488/how-does-on...
- georgemcbay 12y ago
  As a 40 year old who has always lived in the US, the use of -cum- in this manner was never widely used in speech during my lifetime, but it did used to be pretty common in writing. Not so much anymore, though.
  - mindcrime 12y ago
    As another 40 year old who has always lived in the US, that exactly jibes with my experience as well. As far as I can tell, the expression is common in written English, but almost unheard of in spoken English. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm trying to think of other examples of "things that are sometimes (or often) written, but almost never spoken".
    - Intermernet 12y ago
      The word "Regards".
  - thaumasiotes 12y ago
    As a 27-year-old from the US, I tend to agree that this is used in writing (where it's distinguished by being set in italics) and never in speech. I do have a photo of a fancy trash receptacle (four different sections!) in Hong Kong bearing the label "LITTER CUM RECYCLABLES COLLECTION BIN".
- nickstinemates 12y ago
  I appreciate the explanation! Thank you :)
- wpietri 12y ago
  It's legitimate American English, although to my ear it's now archaic, presumably due to the naughty meaning of the term. And I think of it as one of those things that relatively literary, that one would not say in casual conversation.
  - wavefunction 12y ago
    The two words have different pronunciations (when pronounced 'correctly',) if that helps you feel better.
georgemcbay 12y ago
Short for cumulative used as a preposition. this-cum-that (this combined with that). So it is one room serving as both a bedroom and an office.
- mcv 12y ago
  Cum is Latin, and means "with". So it's a bedroom with office. I suspect in this particular case it's probably meant to indicate a bedroom-office hybrid, but originally, "this-cum-that" just means "this with that".
  - unclebucknasty 12y ago
    Funny. I'd always thought of it as also denoting a chronological sequence. For instance, here, originally a bedroom which later fell into use as an office. Not sure why I've had that impression, but it seems (if I recall) that its usage typically supports that implication.
    - jfarmer 12y ago
      I've always understood it the same way.
  - thaumasiotes 12y ago
    I've tried to point this out above, but this cum is only related to the latin word cum by historical accident. It doesn't share usage or meaning with the latin word. And I can only interpret the english phrase "bedroom with office" (already questionably grammatical) as referring to a bedroom with a separate office attached or contained within; it can't refer to a room which serves as both, which is what a bedroom-cum-office is.
- saraid216 12y ago
  It's actually Latin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cum http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=cum1 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:19... In this case, it's best translated as "and". It mostly survives today as the "com-" prefix, like in "combination", but also as an award of particular academic merit "cum laude". http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=com-&allowed_in_frame=0 http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=com-&allowed_in_frame=0
TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
Like in magna-cum-laude, -cum- means "with". Common in writing, uncommon in speech.
- thaumasiotes 12y ago
  Except magna cum laude is a different construction entirely. "Bedroom-cum-office" (hyphens and italics required in my mind) is an english phrase constructed using native english rules, albeit a fairly esoteric one. "Magna cum laude" (hyphens not permitted) is a three-word latin phrase borrowed into english. A bedroom-cum-office is just a room that happens to be both a bedroom and an office. "Magna cum laude" isn't even a noun, it's a descriptive phrase, and the two outer words are not linked by "cum" -- "magna" is an adjective modifying the noun "laude".
  - Kiro 12y ago
    It still refers to the same latin word so not sure what you're arguing about.
    - thaumasiotes 12y ago
      - "magna cum laude" isn't spelled with a -cum-, it's three words, one of which is "cum". - while the "cum" in "magna cum laude" does mean 'with', the "cum" in "bedroom-cum-office" doesn't. How would you interpret "this is the bedroom with office"? - the cum of bedroom-cum-office isn't a latin word, it's english. Similarly, if I say "there's something wrong with the audio", "audio" isn't a latin word, it's an english word. The fact that there's a latin word "audio" (it's a verb, meaning "I hear") is irrelevant. - explaining one thing by reference to another completely unrelated thing is a weird thing to do.

A bedroom that is also "nominally" an office by virtue of its usage as such.

It means the person using the given room as both bedroom and office. The usage of word 'cum' is very common in India. When I first arrived in US, I used to get lot of weird looks from people, I have finally stopped using it. See: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/26488/how-does-one-use-the-latin-word-cum-in-a-sentence http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/26488/how-does-on...

georgemcbay 12y ago
As a 40 year old who has always lived in the US, the use of -cum- in this manner was never widely used in speech during my lifetime, but it did used to be pretty common in writing. Not so much anymore, though.
- mindcrime 12y ago
  As another 40 year old who has always lived in the US, that exactly jibes with my experience as well. As far as I can tell, the expression is common in written English, but almost unheard of in spoken English. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm trying to think of other examples of "things that are sometimes (or often) written, but almost never spoken".
  - Intermernet 12y ago
    The word "Regards".
- thaumasiotes 12y ago
  As a 27-year-old from the US, I tend to agree that this is used in writing (where it's distinguished by being set in italics) and never in speech. I do have a photo of a fancy trash receptacle (four different sections!) in Hong Kong bearing the label "LITTER CUM RECYCLABLES COLLECTION BIN".
nickstinemates 12y ago
I appreciate the explanation! Thank you :)
wpietri 12y ago
It's legitimate American English, although to my ear it's now archaic, presumably due to the naughty meaning of the term. And I think of it as one of those things that relatively literary, that one would not say in casual conversation.
- wavefunction 12y ago
  The two words have different pronunciations (when pronounced 'correctly',) if that helps you feel better.

georgemcbay 12y ago

Short for cumulative used as a preposition. this-cum-that (this combined with that). So it is one room serving as both a bedroom and an office.

mcv 12y ago
Cum is Latin, and means "with". So it's a bedroom with office. I suspect in this particular case it's probably meant to indicate a bedroom-office hybrid, but originally, "this-cum-that" just means "this with that".
- unclebucknasty 12y ago
  Funny. I'd always thought of it as also denoting a chronological sequence. For instance, here, originally a bedroom which later fell into use as an office. Not sure why I've had that impression, but it seems (if I recall) that its usage typically supports that implication.
  - jfarmer 12y ago
    I've always understood it the same way.
- thaumasiotes 12y ago
  I've tried to point this out above, but this cum is only related to the latin word cum by historical accident. It doesn't share usage or meaning with the latin word. And I can only interpret the english phrase "bedroom with office" (already questionably grammatical) as referring to a bedroom with a separate office attached or contained within; it can't refer to a room which serves as both, which is what a bedroom-cum-office is.
saraid216 12y ago
It's actually Latin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cum http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=cum1 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:19... In this case, it's best translated as "and". It mostly survives today as the "com-" prefix, like in "combination", but also as an award of particular academic merit "cum laude". http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=com-&allowed_in_frame=0 http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=com-&allowed_in_frame=0

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago

Like in magna-cum-laude, -cum- means "with". Common in writing, uncommon in speech.

thaumasiotes 12y ago
Except magna cum laude is a different construction entirely. "Bedroom-cum-office" (hyphens and italics required in my mind) is an english phrase constructed using native english rules, albeit a fairly esoteric one. "Magna cum laude" (hyphens not permitted) is a three-word latin phrase borrowed into english. A bedroom-cum-office is just a room that happens to be both a bedroom and an office. "Magna cum laude" isn't even a noun, it's a descriptive phrase, and the two outer words are not linked by "cum" -- "magna" is an adjective modifying the noun "laude".
- Kiro 12y ago
  It still refers to the same latin word so not sure what you're arguing about.
  - thaumasiotes 12y ago
    - "magna cum laude" isn't spelled with a -cum-, it's three words, one of which is "cum". - while the "cum" in "magna cum laude" does mean 'with', the "cum" in "bedroom-cum-office" doesn't. How would you interpret "this is the bedroom with office"? - the cum of bedroom-cum-office isn't a latin word, it's english. Similarly, if I say "there's something wrong with the audio", "audio" isn't a latin word, it's an english word. The fact that there's a latin word "audio" (it's a verb, meaning "I hear") is irrelevant. - explaining one thing by reference to another completely unrelated thing is a weird thing to do.