Etymology
1. O.E.
rum "space," from P.Gmc.
*ruman (cf. O.N., O.S., O.H.G., Goth.
rum, Ger.
Raum "space," Du.
ruim "hold of a ship, nave"), nouns formed from Gmc. adj.
*ruma- "roomy, spacious," perhaps from a PIE base
*rew- "wide, open" (cf. Avestan
ravah- "space," L.
rus "open country," O.Ir.
roi, roe "plain field"). Original sense preserved in
make room "clear space for oneself" (1375); meaning "chamber, cabin" first recorded 1312 as a nautical term, and first applied 1457 to chambers within houses. The O.E. word for this was
cofa, ancestor of
cove. The verb meaning "to occupy rooms" (especially with another) as a lodger" is first recorded 1828.
Room-service is attested from 1930;
room-temperature from 1924. Adj.
roomy is attested from 1627.
Roommate is first attested 1789, Amer.Eng. (short form
roomie is from 1918).
Roomth "sufficient space" (1540) now is obsolete.
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *Hrew-?
4. Proto-Indo-European *(H)rewH-der.
5. Proto-Germanic *rūmą
6. Proto-West Germanic *rūm
7. Old English rūm
8. Middle English roum
9. English room
10. From Middle English roum (“room, space”), from Old English rūm (“room, space”), from Proto-West Germanic *rūm (“room”), from Proto-Germanic *rūmą (“room”), from Proto-Indo-European *(H)rewH- (“to root; to rip, tear”), from *Hrew- (“to tear out, open”).
11. Cognates
12. Cognate with North Frisian rüm (“room, space”), Saterland Frisian and Low German Ruum (“room, space”), Dutch ruim (“open space; cargo hold”), German and Luxembourgish Raum (“room, space”), Vilamovian raojm (“room”), Danish and Swedish rum (“room, space”), Faroese and Icelandic rúm (“space, room”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk rom (“room, space”), Gothic 𐍂𐌿𐌼 (rum, “room, space”); also Irish rúsc (“bark”), Manx roost (“bark; peel, rind”), Scottish Gaelic rùsg (“rind; bark; fleece; shell”), Welsh rhisgl (“bark”), Latin rūs (“country, fields, lands; estate, farm; village”), Ancient Greek ὀρύσσω (orússō), ὀρύττω (orúttō, “to dig”), Latvian raut (“to pull with force”), Lithuanian rauti (“to grub, pull”), Belarusian рыць (rycʹ, “to dig”), Bulgarian ри́я (ríja, “to excavate”), Czech rýt (“to dig; to engrave”), Polish ryć (“to dig”), Russian рыть (rytʹ, “to dig; to burrow, mine”), Slovak ryť (“to dig; to engrave”), Slovene riti (“to dig”), Ukrainian ри́ти (rýty, “to dig, excavate”), Central Kurdish ڕێو (rêw, “public hair”), Tocharian A kärpi (“raw, rough; common”), Tocharian B kärpiye (“raw, rough; common”), Sanskrit लोमन् (loman), रोमन् (roman, “body hair; down, wool”). More at rural. Doublet of Raum, a surname from German.
13. The word superficially appears to be an exception to the Great Vowel Shift, which might have produced the pronunciation /ɹaʊm/, but the retention of Middle English /uː/ before /m/ is regular. In fact, /aʊ/ does not occur before non-coronal consonants in Standard Modern English native vocabulary. Some dialects did undergo diphthongization in such a position and the pronunciation /ɹaʊm/ occurs, for example, in Lancashire. See: Manx '
roost', Scots Gaelic '
rùsg', Lithuanian '
rauti', Belarusan '
рыць', Bulgarian '
ри́я', Czech '
rýt', Polish '
ryć', Russian '
рыть', Slovak '
ryť', Slovene '
riti', Ukrainian '
ри́ти'.