launderette

UK/lɔːnˈdɹɛt/US/lɔndəˈɹɛt/

nounB2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — launder sits at #9,688neutral

Other forms: launderettes

A launderette is a shop of coin-operated washing machines. Go to the launderette.

It exists for households with no machine, which is why the number of them tracks housing. A launderette is one of the few places in a town where strangers sit together for an hour.

Definitions of launderette

1nounlaunderetteA shop of coin-operated washing machines.B2
“The launderette on that corner closed after fifty-one years.”

launderette is a shop.

Also accepted in games: laundromat

Where it comes from

Originally a trademark of the Bendix corporation in the 1940s, from launder plus the ending -ette.

Proto-Indo-European
*lewh₃-
Latin
lavandera
Old French
lavandiere
Middle English
lavender
English
launder
English, today
launderette

of Launderette; originally a proprietary name (1940s) of Bendix corporation, from launder + ette. launder Contracted from Middle English lavender, from Old French lavandiere, from Latin lavandera, from Latin lavō (“to wash”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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