Cubby-hole

{{short description|Small play house, or play area, for children}}

{{About|the children's hideaway|the film|Cubbyhouse|the mailbox|pigeon-hole messagebox|the New York bar|Cubbyhole (lesbian bar)|the compartment in a vehicle's dashboard|Glove compartment}}

{{wiktionary|cubbyhole}}

File:Edit Benny Benson's Cubby Hole at the Old Jesse Lee Home dht.jpg]]

File:Modern-Cubby-House-Design.jpg

A cubby-hole, cubby-house or cubby is a small play house, or play area, for children.{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jm5UxAvFio8C&pg=RA2-PA51 |journal=Transactions of the Philological Society |publisher=B.Blackwell |title=Of the Dorset dialect |page=51 |year=1864}} This may be constructed by the children themselves and used as a place of play.{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uku72FrChaQC&pg=PA25 | title=Playthings |author=Karen Stagnitti |pages=25–26 |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-876367-61-9}}

Children may have a small shed, play-house or tent which they use as a cubby-house.{{citation |title=The Oxford companion to Australian folklore |author1=Gwenda Davey |author2=Graham Seal |year=1993 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1KzWAAAAMAAJ |page=90|isbn=978-0-19-553057-5 }} Children might build their own in various places in the house or garden, or have a pre-fabricated cubby. An Australian fictional treatment of the quest for the perfect cubby can be found in Ursula Dubosarsky's The Cubby House, illustrated by Mitch Vane.[http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780143303800/cubby-house-aussie-nibbles The Cubby House: Aussie Nibbles] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120329230348/http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780143303800/cubby-house-aussie-nibbles |date=2012-03-29 }}

Etymology

Possibly from the term "cub" in old English related to "stall, pen, cattle shed, coop, hutch".{{cite web|url=http://www.edenics.net/english-word-origins.aspx?word=CUBBYHOLE|title=Origin of English word CUBBYHOLE|publisher=}} "Cubby-hole" is sometimes written as one word (cubbyhole).

Meanings in various countries

In South Africa, cubby-hole or cubby is the word for a glove compartment in a vehicle. This usage is also common in Barbados, Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, as well as parts of Southern Minnesota; Michigan; Madison, South Dakota; and Northwest Wyoming.

In the UK, Ireland and Canada, it may refer to the cupboard under the stairs. In Quebec, the French word cagibi, which is a contraction of cage à bijoux, and roughly translates as "jewel case", is synonymous with a triangular storage walk-in located directly under the inner stairs of a house.

In the United States, a cubby-hole most often refers to a small square or rectangle-shaped space where children may keep their personal belongings, such as in a preschool or kindergarten setting. These cubby-holes are often constructed out of the same materials as bookshelves and have a similar appearance save for the division of the cubbies themselves.

See also

References