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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.
by georgemcbay 13y 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 13y agoCum 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 13y agoFunny. 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 13y agoI've always understood it the same way.
- thaumasiotes 13y agoI'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 13y agoIt'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