Room and board

A dorm room at Endicott College, Massachusetts, USA

Room and board describes an accommodation which, in exchange for money, labour or other recompense, a person is provided with a place to live in addition to meals. It commonly occurs as a fee at higher educational institutions, such as colleges and universities; it also occurs in hotel-style accommodation for short stays.

Definition

  • Room refers to a bedroom provided, sometimes private and occasionally with an en suite bathroom.
  • Board refers to food being provided; the use of this term may derive from the Old English bord, meaning table.[1]

Two commonly encountered boards are:

  • Half board, where the host provides only breakfast and dinner meals.
  • Full board, where the host provides three daily meals.

Another option is:

See also

  • Bistro, a type of informal French restaurant
  • Boarding house, a lodging establishment
  • Boarding school
  • Parlour boarder, an archaic term for a category of pupil at boarding school
  • Sideboard, an article of furniture from which food is served in a dining room

References

  1. ^ Savelli, Mary (2011). Old English Phrases. p. 48. ISBN 9781463780746.