The other day, I was talking to my seven-year old daughter while we were cleaning up the house. Of course, we must clean up (pick up) before the maids come each Friday, so this has become part of our weekly ritual now.
She asked me where one of our todder's toys went, and I told her, "We keep them by the fireplace." As an aside, we have had a fireplace in each of our two homes dating back 13 years, yet I have NEVER had a fire. I don't like the process of creating a fire, or cleaning it up, or the danger posed with children. I would probably consider a gas log at some point, but that is not the point of this post.
When I said the word "fireplace", it struck me as funny. Fire place. The place where fire goes. Then, I started thinking about other home-related words, and how basic some of them are.
The bedroom is the room where the bed is. The living room is where you spent much of your living time. The gameroom, breakfast room and dining room are all aptly named.
Perhaps someone could answer these questions for me:
- Why is the kitchen not called the "food room" or the "eating room", or "the room where everyone congregates when we have guests over"?
- How did the garage, which serves such a non-glamerous function, get such a cool French-sounding name?
- The same question goes for the patio (actually a Spanish word), or the "sitting place", as I like to think of it now. Actually, in our case, I may just start calling it the "toy graveyard".
"Ceiling fan" seems too utilitarian sounding to my ears - I would like to suggest "sky cooler" as an alternative.
I understand the terms "formal living" and "formal dining", but I would like to re-name them thusly:
- "Catch-all room that no one ever sits in"
- "Room used twice annually"
Maybe that's too many syllables? Doesn't formal sort of imply that you should be wearing a tuxedo or a formal dress to sit there? I don't even own a formal dress.
"Media room" is also a little boring. How about "room for massive HDTV and surround sound system" or just "guy room"?
Roof? How about "house hat"? Sorry, Mr. Johnson, but your house hat has severe hail damage.
Foundation? I like "underhome" better. Did you have to get your underhome repaired?
Attic? I will now refer to this area as the "up top".
Well, I am getting hungry now. I am going to get a snack from the food box in our eating room.
Welcome to my mind.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this post, why not connect with me elsewhere or subscribe via email?
If you're looking for a home in the Austin area, you can also visit my primary Austin real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com. If you're interested in social media training, visit 210 Consulting. Thanks!
Nice one, LOL!!!! Keep thinking and see what else you can come up with. Good post, LOL
You made me laugh
Yeah, formal living and dining room should just be referred to as the showrooms. Lovely to look at but usually a complete waste of square footage for the average home owner.
Jason...
This is so funny because my wife and I have special names, such as (dining room) "The room we never use" (Pantry) "Larder" because it sounds funnier, (bonus room) "Climate controlled storage" and (Guest room) "LeMieux's Room" because it is generally occupied by our cat LeMieux!
Jason - I know several folks with "toy graveyards". I really don't like toy graveyards myself, and there are definitely things that mysteriously disappear into the garbage can when no one is looking!
Thanks (as usual) for the laughs.
lol very funny Jason. My breakfast nook has now officially been re-named place to leave all your stuff on the table.
I think I'll start calling my office the "piles of paper room"!
Jason ~ This was so Andy Rooney-ish (new word!). I agree about the living room and dining room. We hardly use either at my house, yet they are filled with furniture and are always the neatest rooms in the house!
For you, my dear:
"kitchen" comes from the colloquial Latin "coquina" ("cooking room"), derived from "coquere," meaning "to cook." "Coquina" was filtered through various European languages and eventually, via a Germanic route, became the English "kitchen" (in French it became "cuisine," which English later adopted as well). "Cook" and "culinary" derive from the same roots.
LOL, good point about "kitchen" I like how you created your own words for different areas of the house especially the "toy graveyard"
We also have little separations from the kitchen that we call breakfast rooms, but we still need somewhere to eat lunch and dinner
Jason,
I am so glad that everyone cleans their homes before their maids arrive....not just me....it is more like a monitoring system than a cleaning service.....
Too funny! We used to call the living room the forbidden room, for obvious reasons. No one, especially the dog, was ever allowed in it. Now it has a pool table and a foosball table in it. Who needs a living room anyway?
Garage is the west coast equivalent of a basement or attic- the place to dump stuff you should really get rid of but may want some day. And apparently, the backyard is really the dog's toilet. (I know- TMI!)
...I am lying on my couch in the every-one-gathers-here room with a big smile on my face! Your blog unleashes more possibilities than I can enumerate! We have used our living room once in 20 years (except for opening gifts Christmas morning)...and that was to entertain our minister! Too stereotypical! Thanks for the giggle!
I love words and learning the origin of words. I see that Sheree has covered the origin of the word kitchen so I won't be redundant. But our word 'garage' is a direct borrowing of French garage, which is first recorded in 1802 in the sense "place where one docks." The verb garer, from which garage was derived, originally meant "to put merchandise under shelter," then "to moor a boat," and then "to put a vehicle into a place for safekeeping," that is, a garage, a sense first recorded in French in 1901. English almost immediately borrowed this French word, the first instance being found in 1902.
Jason, I am somehow relieved that you don't own a formal dress. But does that imply that you own an informal dress? :-) Just kidding.
Jason - you need your own formal dress. You can feel like a prom queen!
In my previous four houses, the living rooms were more like the "holiday" rooms. The garages more like storage rooms or, for the last two, my work shop (and storage rooms).
Kind of Carlinesque, the way rooms are named. Maybe we should just go back to calling rooms by the color they are painted, or the flooring, whatever.
Jason,
If the living room is where we do our living or spend most of our time living then why is the kitchen where everybody goes. HMMMMMMMMMMMM
Don R.
Jason
Your mind is full of all kinds of stuff! .....but it is good stuff. ;) I enjoyed this one.
Jason,
Through all the lists of your rooms you forgot the bathroom; where one bathes, right! I wouldn't want to hear any other word-related ideas for this room, so please people don't comment. As far as the kitchen goes the word "kitchen's" origin:
Middle English kichene, from Old English cycene, probably from Vulgar Latin *cocna, from Late Latin coquna, from feminine of Latin coqunus, of cooking, from coquus, cook, from coquere, to cook.
I think the "eatingroom" sounds a lot less complicated! Great post, Jason!
I have always wondered...why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways?
"Media room" is also a little boring. How about "room for massive HDTV and surround sound system" or just "guy room"? I think "Man Cave" is better for this one although I sometimes use that for the garage. You have a warped mind Mr Crouch, I like that about you. Have a great weekend.
Jason... this can get a wondering mind running circles.... great trivial post !
I agree with Paddy and I love "Man Cave" but we use it here for the cigar smoking card room. This was great for a giggle in the morning. Good post!
Paddy - I once used "Men's Den" in a lisitng that referred to a full basement with bar, pool table, poker table and a 72" TV because that's what the seller wanted to see...until I got reprimanded by the board for Fair Housing...
Jason - it is interesting where the the words to describe homes came from.
Kids are so funny, when my nephew was little, we were at the lake and there was a sign for the lodge and the dam. Out of nowhere he blurts out "Dam Lodge"! It took us a second, but then realized he was just reading the sign.
I've read a few different lineages of the word we now incorrectly term "kitchen". The correct spelling of the room is "kitschen" and comes from the Germans. Kitsch [Ger.,=trash], term most frequently applied since the early 20th cent. to works considered pretentious and tasteless. This pretty accurately describes most of what comes out of the "kitchen".
As for the bedroom. The bed is a peice of furniture, and like the rest of the house shouldn't be named after a peice of furniture. Can you imagine the referigerator room? The couch room? No, this room should be named after the action that takes place there. Might I suggest the "laying room"? Only two things take place there...you either lay asleep, or you lay your spouse. And the formal lay room(formerly master bedroom) is equally named with the other "formal" rooms in the house.....highly underused. Of course, the guest lay room could be pretty interesting depending which of the two activities are taking place.
Well, first of all I am still marvelling that some of y'all have maids...hehe!
Secondly, I will stomp my foot if anyone calls the media room the "guy room" in my presence. I like football, mma fights, boxing and a slew of other programs which usually call for the "media room" as well as action movies, martial arts films and sci fi. I protest at calling it the "guy room" !!
Whew ok I'm off the soap box. :-)
One of my recent buyers wondered "what will we do with that formal living room?" ......her husband said....that can be our "Wi Room". I can't get that out of my head now.
That is so funny Jason! I just died laughing, ' we must clean up before the maids come each Friday'. ! We have to do the same thing. My son says, why do we have a maid if we have to clean up anyways! I wonder that myself and Nestor always makes fun of me. Well, the maid does not know where to put everything!
Oh, and the part about your patio, we have a couple of rooms being used for the toy graveyard. :)
I have been wondering what the deal is with great rooms. They are really just living rooms. But, noe on our MLS listing sheets we have a check box for living room, great room, and family room.
Great post, I love your thinking...makes me think. I don't think about those names often but I am now...thanx for the good laugh
Funny.
Just some seconds ago i was asking me self wer the word, "real estate " came 4rm
and i stumbled in here.
so any ans ?