[ad. L. cubicul-um bedchamber, f. cubāre to recline.]
A bedchamber: in the general sense obs. since the 16th c., but re-introduced in modern use, esp. in English public schools, for one of the series of small separate sleeping chambers, which now often take the place of an undivided dormitory.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 72/1. I was delyueryd of a chyld in my cubycle.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., II. xl. 28. He called theym one by one … into his secrete cubicle or chambre.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 5. I rose vp shortly fro my cubycle preparat aboute mydnyght.
1858. Sat. Rev., 6 Nov., 449/1. The dormitory was a large chamber divided into about a dozen cubicles, or small sleeping apartments, by wooden partitions and doors which rose within a few feet of the ceiling.
attrib. 1891. Daily News, 11 Nov., 2/7. In the Victoria Home both the dormitory system and the cubicle system had been introduced.
