A large room containing several beds, typically in a school or institution. Also short for dormitory building where students live.
From Latin dormitorium meaning 'sleeping place,' from dormire 'to sleep.' The shortened form 'dorm' emerged in American English in the early 20th century as college slang.
The word 'dorm' perfectly captures how language naturally shortens when we use it frequently - students couldn't be bothered saying the full 'dormitory' every day! Interestingly, the Latin root 'dormire' gave us many sleep-related words like 'dormant' and even 'dormer' windows.
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