[Ads-l] bunkmate

[Wilson Gray]

Bunkmate | Definition of Bunkmate by Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bunkmate
Definition of bunkmate. : a person occupying the same sleeping quarters as
oneself or as another especially in one of the armed services; especially :
such a person occupying the next bunk or bed.

This definition is a little different from my understanding of this term.
If the bunks are double-decked, then a bunkmate is the person who sleeps in
the other bunk above you or below you, as the case may be. If the bunks
aren't double-decked, then you have barracksmates, who may also be your
roommates, according to the configuration of the barracks. At one time, in
a six-degrees-of-separation situation, one of my roommates - the bunks in
the room were doubled-decked, but we weren't bunkmates -  was the son of
the commanding general of the 3rd Armored "Spearhead" Division, in which
Elvis served when he was guarding America's freedom.

On Fri, Jun 22, 2018 at 8:35 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Astoundingly absent from OED.
>
> 1852 in GB: About two o'clock in the morning, his bunkmate was aroused by
> his kicking and striking the air with great violence.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org