You Were Asking: Residence Halls vs. Dormitories
A member recently asked this question. I thought it was interesting, and that the answer is too. Hopefully you feel the same.
Does anyone know of any articles or studies as to when/why the lingo changed from dorm to res hall (to living center, etc)?
As far as I know, there aren’t any articles specifically on this (please post in the comments if you know otherwise). However, this is the answer I sent.
Below I pasted the definitions from the online etymology dictionary, to which I’m referring here. (I love the Online Etymology Dictionary, by the way. It is fabulous.)
Basically, “dormitory” comes from the word dormir which means to sleep or to become dormant. I’ve included some related definitions as well; cubicle (derived from a word that meant “to lie down, to bend oneself”), was the space in which someone slept in the dormitory. The word “cemetery” was derived from words related to dormitory, as it is a “sleeping place.”
The references to folding oneself into cubicles and death are likely the reason “dormitory” fell out of favor.
Further below, there’s the historical meanings for the words “residence” and “hall” which have much grander and more home-like pedigrees than that of “dormitory.” These connotations are what universities and colleges refer to when explaining why those buildings are residence halls, not dormitories. (A number of examples can be found at the link.)
I think the terms “living-learning” and similar, to specifically denote the educational aspects of residence halls, were used more commonly following the publishing of the Residential Nexus, which argued for a strong educational presence in the residence halls. As this is also a way to show the benefits of housing to students, parents and the administration, housing pros emphasize the home-like and educational aspects of housing, rather than the sleeping, dormant aspect.
EDIT: Kevin Guidry’s comment about an article in the Talking Stick sent me on a hunt through late-80s copies of the magazine. After flipping through many pages of–it must be said–ill-advised editorial, advertisement and fashion decisions, I found the article to which he was likely referring. Here it is: TalkingStick87 ResHallsDorms
From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
Dormitory: mid-15c., from L. dormitorium, from dormire “to sleep” (see dormant).
Dorm: 1900, colloquial shortening of dormitory.
Cubicle: late 15c., from L. cubiculum “bedroom,” from cubare “to lie down,” originally “bend oneself,” from PIE base *keu(b)- “to bend, turn.” Obsolete from 16c., but revived 19c. for “dormitory sleeping compartment,” sense of “any partitioned space” (such as a library carrel) is first recorded 1926.
Cemetery: late 14c., from O.Fr. cimetiere “graveyard” (12c.), from L.L. coemeterium, from Gk. koimeterion “sleeping place, dormitory,” from koimao “to put to sleep,” keimai “I lie down,” from PIE base *kei- “to lie, rest” (cf. Goth haims “village,” O.E. ham “home, house, dwelling”); see home. Early Christian writers were the first to use it for “burial ground,” though the Greek word also were anciently used of the sleep of death.
Hall: O.E. heall “place covered by a roof, spacious roofed residence, temple,” from P.Gmc. *khallo “to cover, hide” (cf. O.H.G. halla, Ger. halle, Du. hal, O.N. höll “hall;” O.E. hell, Goth. halja “hell”), from PIE base *kel- “to hide, conceal” (see cell). Sense of “entry, vestibule” evolved 17c., at a time when the doors opened onto the main room of a house. Older sense preserved in town hall, music hall, etc., and in university dormitory names. Hall of Fame first attested 1901, in ref. to Columbia College.
Residence: c.1380, from M.L. residentia, from L. residentem (nom. residens) “residing, dwelling,” prp. of residere “reside” (see reside). Residential is attested from 1654, “serving as a residence;” meaning “having to do with housing” is from 1856.
Tags: History
Thanks for providing the etymology for the words to help explain the difference. The most common complaint I hear about the change is the length of time it takes to say Residence Hall versus saying dorm. People want the quicker easier one, so I have encouraged people to just use hall for quick usage and Residence Hall as the full name.
I don’t remember the dates (late 80s? early 90s?) but I seem to recall a series of articles in Talking Stick specifically addressing this issue and different sides of the debate.
I’ve recently learned that Residence Hall is more of a Student Affairs Jargon than a term that people actually use. It is mostly used internally. I work at a college that just opened housing for the first time. When I first started, I used Residence Hall all the time and got puzzled looks. It’s just not in most people’s vocabulary. We are an apartment style student living setup and still I do not fight the use of the word dorm. This is the term that students and parents know and are comfortable with. I’ve noticed that the use of dorm in no way changes the living experience of the students.
Thank you all for reading and commenting!
Michell, I think your suggestion, to use the word “hall” for short is a good one. I recall doing that, un-coached, during my undergraduate days. (When being the ACUHO-I librarian was but a sparkle in my eye.)
Kevin, I think I found the article to which you’re refering. Gotta love that typeface!
Jason, I do agree, that the connotations of the words don’t exist in a vaccum. In addition to calling them halls, I also called my undergraduate residences “dorms,” but I didn’t do that with the negative connotations in mind. I enjoyed my time living in those buildings, whatever they were called. (Yays for Ohio University!)
I agree with what Jason posted. After attending preview days and admissions bus trips representing my residence life office, I’ve found that parents and students know our residence halls as dorms. I try to explain what happens in residence halls. I talk about our programs, learning communities, security features, and educational initiatives. These families appreciate our services and the learning that occurs there. I would assume this is why they then choose to attend our university. But they still know the halls as dorms. It seems that Residence Hall is a term of practice or profession. Residence Life professional and paraprofessionals use the terms. Others outside of our profession often don’t. It bothers me when staff correct someone for using the term dorm. Collette Shaw points out in her September 2002 About Campus article, A Dorm is a Dorm is a Dorm, that journalists use the word dorm in newspaper articles. This is done because journalists replace uncommon terminology (residence halls) with what the author refers to as more “more colloquial language” or common terminology. I’m not sure that residence hall or dorm really matters, so long as residence life professionals can convey what we do and how students benefit from the experience.
I don’t have any big need to be the language police on this issue, and I think it’s unnecessary to correct folks outside of the profession or outside of our own departments.
But something to ponder and discuss amongst ourselves…
It’s pretty common for colleges and universities to use the language “residence halls”, and no other entities really use this language. “Dormitory” is used to describe other group housing quarters in many different settings. The military doesn’t officially use the term “barracks” anymore, but uses “dormitories”. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections uses the term “dormitory” for some of their housing for inmates. The New York Department of Mental Health Services also uses “dormitory” as the term for the housing in their facilities. The US Census lumps all of this together as “Group Quarters”.
I like using “Residence Hall” because it distinguishes us from all of those other possibilities, no matter how similar we may be at times.
I did a quick dictionary check (websters.com) because a mentor of mine liked to use definitions of dorm vs. residence halls to help differentiate. If you look at the word Dormitory ,comes from the greek “dorm” meaning to sleep. As a residence life professional, I really don’t want my halls to be a place where my students just sleep. The LIVE there and LEARN there and grow and do all the great things that students do to thrive. If they are just sleeping there, well, I’m not doing my job am I? If you look up the term residence hall, its not the most vivid definition but, as Sue said above, at least its specific to university and college housing and not prisons or armies or the like.
And while I don’t want this to be about being P.C. or the language police or anything, I just think that being intentional has a great power to it. I don’t correct every parent but I do have high expectations for my hall leaders, my hall staff, the professional staff and more. If I hear the head of my department start saying dorm, I’m gonna get concerned.
From the April 1909 issue of “Religious Education: The Journal of the Religious Education Association”, p. 34, “Dormitory Life for College Men” by Charles F. Thwing, LL.D., President Western Reserve University and Adelbert College:
“The word “dormitory,” in its present meaning, is a new word in academic language; in its present meaning it stands for a building used by a college for housing students… “Hall” is still used, and to it have been added “house” or “cottage” or “halls of residence,” especially as applied to women’s colleges. “Dormitory” has, within fifty years, come into good use. It can hardly be called a fitting word, except for those who wish, in their earnestness or wit, to represent the college life as torpid.”
(The article, and the one after it, outline much about the character and nature of life in the halls of residence circa 1909. Don’t let anyone tell you that residence life history begins in the 1960s! This stuff is much older than the memory of anyone on this list! Now of course, that doesn’t dictate what we SHOULD call the buildings, but know that it is not a recent debate…)
[...] love the debates over whether the buildings that house residents are dorms or residence halls. It’s an issue that people in student affairs are extremely passionate about, both sides [...]