Chum

Origin of: Chum

Chum

This familiar colloquialism for a friend has an interesting origin. Its first citation is from the late 17th century and was originally used by Oxford University students as an abbreviation of chamber-fellow, someone with whom one shared rooms. It was the Oxford equivalent of Cambridge University’s crony, which dates from around the same time. It became something of a tradition that if one was at Oxford, one had chums while at Cambridge one had cronies, and these language protocols are maintained by ‘Oxbridge’ graduates to this day.