cube farm in BDC Vol. 11.1, p 17-18

[David Barnhart]

cube farm, {w}  a room, such as in an office, divided into sections by low
walls, especially to offer some degree of privacy to each worker in the
room.  Compare prairie-dogging and hot desking (DC 8.3: 1993?) and hoteling
(DC 10.1: 1991).  Standard (used in contexts dealing especially with
business management; common)



The beloved  Cube Farm  began to crop up on our office landscape in the
1970s with what Haworth design manager Jeff Reuschel calls a "noble
purpose": replacing the "bullpens full of desks" that were the norm back
then with "a more flexible, fluid solution."  Dale Fuchs, "The cubicle
culture," The Des Moines [Iowa] Register (Nexis), Aug. 17, 1997, Life Style
sect., p 1



1986 (1970s)?  Composite (compound): formed, with semantic shifting of both
elements, from cube (OED: 1626) "a cubical block" + farm (OED: 1523), as in
tank farm (OEDs: 1932).   Probably influenced by cubicle (OEDs: 1926)
meaning "a small partitioned space."  [Vol. 11.1]

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