cubicle

From Late Middle English cubicle, from Latin cubiculum (“bedroom”). Doublet of cubiculum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkjuːbɪkəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Homophone: cubical

cubicle (plural cubicles)

1. A small separate part or one of the compartments of a room, especially in a work environment.

   Most libraries provide cubicles for quiet study.

   • 1983 December 17, Christine Guilfoy, “Women's Bar, Mens Baths Destroyed By Fire”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 22, page 1:

     Two men who were in the baths at the time of the fire, who preferred to remain anonymous, told GCN that they were asleep in a cubicle on the fourth floor when they awoke to the smell of smoke.

   • 1999, Mike Judge, Office Space (motion picture), spoken by Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston):

     I sit in a cubicle and I update bank software for the 2000 switch.

2. A small enclosure at a swimming pool etc. used to provide personal privacy when changing.
3. (UK, Australia) A small enclosure in a public toilet for individual use.
   • 2019 May 23, “Two female loos for every male one, experts recommend”, in BBC News‎^[1], retrieved 14 August 2019:

     With more urinals than cubicles, men - unlike women - rarely queue, a Royal Society for Public Health report says.

   • 2019 August 16, “Anti-sex toilets will soak users with water jets and sound alarm”, in Planet Rock‎^[2], retrieved 17 August 2019:

     The toilets will have weight-sensitive floors to make sure only one person is using each cubicle at a time.

• (toilet cubicle): stall (chiefly US)

Learned borrowing from Latin cubiculum (“bedroom”).

cubicle (Late Middle English)

1. a bedchamber [15th c.]
2. (by extension) any small room

• English: cubicle