Launderettes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A self-service establishment where patrons can wash and dry their clothing using machines
2. A facility equipped with coin-operated washing and drying machines for public use
3. A place providing laundry services with machines available for users to perform their own laundering tasks

Etymology: "Launderettes" is the plural of "launderette", a noun for a self-service shop where customers wash and dry their own clothes in machines. The word began as a brand name: in the 1940s the American manufacturer Bendix Corporation registered "Launderette" as a proprietary term for its coin-operated washing machines. Because the name was so widely used, it slipped out of trademark status and became a common noun for the places that housed such machines. The word is built from "launder", a verb meaning to wash clothes, borrowed through Middle English and Old French from Latin "lavare", "to wash", with the diminutive suffix "-ette" added at the end. The "-ette" ending suggests something small or a little version of a thing, so the coined name sounded like a compact, convenient kind of laundry. The same suffix appears in words like "kitchenette" and "cigarette".

Synonyms: laundromats, wash houses, laundry shops, washateria, self-service laundries