What's the word I'm looking for?

Andrew Patterson · Post by **Andrew Patterson** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 9:56 am

I'm looking for the name of the part of a semi-detached house that comes between two semi-detached houses, usually only one storey high and divided by a party wall which contains a back back passage, and has rooms on one side such as a utility room, store-room (often originally used as a coal house), and a downstairs toilet. The other side opens into the house usually through the kitchen.

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:13 pm

A semi-detached is just two houses with a mirror image and we just called that part of the layout of the house "the back hall" as in
"Where did I leave my shorts?" " They are in the back hall."

Andrew Patterson · Post by **Andrew Patterson** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 8:58 pm

Thanks Sally, I'd just like to ask for some clarirfication here. "Hall" can either be used for a building (usually a big one, though), or for a corridor in a house. Actually I was surprised that you said "hall" because I thought that was more common in British English, referring to the corridor immediately behind the front door.

Are you just refering to the passageway or to the whole structure?

JuanTwoThree · Post by **JuanTwoThree** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 9:01 pm

The outhouse?

Half an hour later: we live and learn, so in AmE an outhouse is a free standing wooden loo/toilet/bog.

This from a British estate agent:

"In addition, there is an attached outhouse that at present is utilised as utility, cloakroom and garden storage, and could be converted into a new kitchen, or playroom/study(subject to building regulations)."

from http://www.barringtonandco.com

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 9:35 pm

We had an "outhouse" or extension as well that was used as a guest bedroom/plant room but that was attached on the outside of our semi and the other semi didn't have it. The back hall was as you say, a passageway in same sense as the front hall came in from the front door to the living room and each room off of the back hall had a name -"laundry room, storage room, bathroom". Our family name for all these structures or that area of the house was "the back hall" and if you didn't find your shorts in the passageway you would look in the laundryroom, etc.

Andrew Patterson · Post by **Andrew Patterson** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:16 pm

OK, I'll come clean now, I was eliciting to see what you would come up with. The word "outhouse" does seem to refer to this structure, but unfortunately, it is ambiguous as it can also refer to a building that is not physically attached to the main house. A collegue of mine needs to refer to this exact structure in a translation from Polish.

In Wales, the Welsh word for this structure is used "the cwch". "W" is a vowel in Welsh and pronounced as the "oo" in good. In Welsh apparantly it means boat, I guess it looks a bit like an upturned boat. The word is never used to refer to a boat in Welsh English. Either way, cwch is completly unambiguous in this context. "Cwch up" (which means move closer together, usually refering to people) also exists but could hardly be confused here. I have even seen Welsh architects use this word in plans for semi-detatched houses written in English.

I was wondering whether cwch had become the general term, the only results from searches have either been in Welsh (no good to me 'cos I can't speak/read it) or refer to places in Wales.

Has anyone heard this structure called a cwch?

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:48 pm

The closest I can come is something starting with a P in these plans for a more modern semi:
http://www.ehouseplans.com/frameset.htm ... mit=search

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:02 pm

I don't think I've ever seen what you're describing, so it can't be that common (and I'm Welsh).. What do you mean by "the part of a semi-detached house that comes between two semi-detached houses," ; if the house is a semi there isn't anything between the two houses; they share the party wall. That's why it's called a semi.

Andrew Patterson · Post by **Andrew Patterson** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 7:20 am

Stephen wrote:

I don't think I've ever seen what you're describing, so it can't be that common (and I'm Welsh).. What do you mean by "the part of a semi-detached house that comes between two semi-detached houses," ; if the house is a semi there isn't anything between the two houses; they share the party wall. That's why it's called a semi.

Stephen,
Semi detatched houses do indeed share a party wall. What I'm describing is the structure that joins the pairs of semi-detatched houses, and it is an extremely common structure. I think it's either a "cwch" or an "outhouse".

Trouble is, "cwch" seems to be a dialect word and "outhouse" is ambigous.

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 3:32 pm

I know what you mean now. They are not special to semi-detached houses. L lived in a row of converted detached houses in London that had exactly what you refer to.

Nowadays they're called the garage

saerf · Post by **saerf** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 12:39 am

I think the word you're looking for is "breezeway".

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 2:55 pm

A breezeway is a covered passage. I think what Andrew is referring to is a one story building between thow sets of semi-detached houses.

coffeedecafe · Post by **coffeedecafe** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 5:45 am

a 'cwch' sounds suspiciously to me like the english phrase 'chicken coop' based on being the lowest part of the structure. the only other welch words i know off habd are 'princess diana' and william williams'.if you wanted to sound more upscale than 'breezeway', i suppose you could name it the 'humidor'. another word that might fit though not specifically between two larger structures might be an 'annex'?

Andrew Patterson · Post by **Andrew Patterson** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 8:25 pm

Well, I've never heard of "back hall" or "breezeway". Are these US terms? Despite the US meaning, I think I'll stick with "outhouse". Roget's doesn't even list cwch. I'll make a distinction between "outhouse" and "out-building".

On a slightly different note, I think that you have to be careful when describing that part of the house - a letter to a local council once apparently read:

I wish to complain that my father hurt his ankle very badly when he put his foot in the hole in his back passage.

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:47 pm

I would sure have trouble with "outhouse" because of the connotation of outdoor bathroom. By the way, in Canada, we usually call this type of house a duplex.
duplex house: a house with two units sharing a common wall
I wonder if you could call it a shared first floor extension?