Room and board

This article is about the general concept. For other uses, see Room and board (disambiguation).

A dorm room at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts, United States.

Room and board describes an accommodation which, in exchange for money, labour or other compensation, a person is provided with a place to live in addition to meals. It is most common at higher educational institutions, such as colleges and universities; it may also be seen in hotel-style accommodation for short stays, or on remote research or industrial facilities, including Antarctica research stations or oil rigs.

Definition

The two words in Room and board refer to the two main elements that are provided as part of a given exchange:

• Room, or the space in which one rests or studies; these often contain a bed, desk, and dresser, but may also include an attached bathroom, shower, or closet space
• Board, or the providing of food, equipment, and leisure; the use of this term may derive from the Old English bord, meaning table.

Room and board is commonly provided in one of three formats; those are

• Full board, where the host provides three daily meals.
• Half board, where the host provides only two meals, typically breakfast and dinner, but less commonly breakfast and lunch.
• Bed and breakfast, where the host only provides sleeping space and breakfast.

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

• Room and Board - phrase meaning and origin
• I need to know where the phrase 'room and board' originated and w...
• Life in the 1500s

External links

• The dictionary definition of room and board at Wiktionary