Timeline for Was the living room called the "death room" around World War I? If so, by whom?
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16 events
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| Jun 15, 2022 at 9:59 | vote | accept | Muzer | ||
| Mar 28, 2021 at 17:05 | comment | added | DavePhD | @IMSoP A better example than the OED quotes is this 1850 reference google.com/books/edition/… which uses the term "living-room" numerous times including in many floor plans. Bok definitely didn't coin the term. His contribution was just to emphasize living rooms over parlors. | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 20:03 | comment | added | IMSoP | @DavePhD That's interesting. 1867 is still far too early to attribute to Edward Bok, though, since according to Wikipedia he was 4 years old at the time (and living in the Netherlands). If he's supposed to have coined it while editor of the Ladies Home Journal, any example prior to 1889 is evidence against. | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 19:52 | comment | added | DavePhD | @IMSoP The 1989 OED had the supposed 1857 example, but it has since been deleted. (completely deleted, not just re-dated). | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 19:49 | comment | added | DavePhD | @IMSoP I have access to the subscription OED, and the 1824/1825 example is "living-room" in contrast to a greenhouse where people don't live. The place where people live should not depend upon the greenhouse for ventilation. Then the next entry is 1867, not 1857. | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 14:59 | comment | added | IMSoP | The claim that Edward Bok created the term "living room" seems to be false: Wikipedia lists his birth as 1863, but the OED apparently has citations from 1825 and 1857. As such, it's not really clear how he fits into this story: did he make a comment about the "death room" while popularising an existing term? Was that existing term coined by someone else in contrast to "death room"? | |
| Mar 26, 2021 at 19:54 | comment | added | DavePhD | @LangLаngС the tradition was "the body was moved to the parlor where it was put on view" google.com/books/edition/Up_the_Mainstream/… I don't think people dying in the parlor was typical. | |
| Mar 26, 2021 at 18:44 | comment | added | LangLаngС | That is true & incomplete, as sometimes people were transported into a more spacious accommodation, so that more people could gather to say good bye, to the still living but going – thus in the parlor, where they were expected to die and then be on view… Or would you understand that as Bok, blogs or WP seeing the parlor as were most people suddenly drop dead? | |
| Mar 26, 2021 at 18:36 | comment | added | DavePhD | @LangLаngС "death room" meant the room where someone died. As in "It may be difficult to absolutely disinfect a death-room in a private residence by the use of formaldehyde, but the room is certainly made much safer than it would have been without such fumigation" google.com/books/edition/The_Medical_Age/… | |
| Mar 26, 2021 at 18:25 | comment | added | LangLаngС | Among other aspects: "Death room" was a temporary function for rooms called the salon, the parlor, in a private home, until "funeral parlors" became more common. Parlor in a home that had them being often unused for everyday living, but kept closed for more special occasions, gatherings, meetings (the heating!) a semi-public space of the house. This emphasises before 1920s, for many decades as the timeframe to look at for such 'nicknames'? Hop to the HubofR But then your now last para is in need of more direct refs? | |
| Mar 26, 2021 at 18:17 | history | edited | DavePhD | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 26, 2021 at 18:11 | comment | added | LangLаngС | Currently, I do not see how this answers the question about any "death room". The whole Bok-angle is full of overstatement at its core. Where should the "stigma" come from? However, Burns is a source to dig deeper into, as well as Laderman ("RIP"). Hint: it is not about storing ("stack"!, surplus?) dead, but wake, display & viewing; in short: long established cultural norms, not really connected to flu, but death in general & in families, public/private ritual and changing attitudes. | |
| Mar 26, 2021 at 18:11 | comment | added | Avery | I think this is the right answer, but you should make it clear that "death room" was not the actual name, and add that this had nothing to do with influenza -- it was simply common before the 20th century to mourn over a body at home, as it still is in many parts of the world. | |
| Mar 26, 2021 at 17:43 | history | edited | DavePhD | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 26, 2021 at 17:34 | history | edited | DavePhD | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 26, 2021 at 17:24 | history | answered | DavePhD | CC BY-SA 4.0 |