Cubby-hole

A cubby-hole, cubby-house or cubby is a small play house, or play area, for children.[2] This may be constructed by the children themselves and used as a place of play.[3] Autistic children can sometimes benefit from such places.[4] Children may have a small shed, play-house or tent which they use as a cubby-house.[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.[6]

This article is about the children's hideaway. For the film, see Cubbyhouse. For the message box, see pigeon-hole messagebox.
Cubby-hole used by Benny Benson
Modern cubby house designed for children's play[1]

Etymology

Possibly from the term "cub" in old English related to "stall, pen, cattle shed, coop, hutch".[7] "Cubby-hole" is sometimes written as one word (cubbyhole).

Meanings in various countries

In South Africa, cubby-hole 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; Madison, South Dakota; and Northwest Wyoming.

In England, 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.

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See also

References
  1. Country, Cubbies. "Modern cubby house designs". Retrieved 2012-12-29.
  2. "Of the Dorset dialect", Transactions of the Philological Society, B.Blackwell: 51, 1864
  3. Karen Stagnitti (2000), Playthings, pp. 25–26, ISBN 978-1-876367-61-9
  4. Ellen Notbohm; Veronica Zysk; Temple Grandin (2010), 1001 Great Ideas for Teaching & Raising Children With Autism Or Asperger's, ISBN 978-1-935274-06-3
  5. Gwenda Davey; Graham Seal (1993), The Oxford companion to Australian folklore, p. 90
  6. The Cubby House: Aussie Nibbles Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine
  7. "Origin of English word CUBBYHOLE".
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