CHUM. Armenian, chomm, or chommein, or ham, to dwell, stay, or lodge; French, chômer, to rest; Saxon, ham, home. A chamber-fellow; one who lodges or resides in the same room.—Webster.
This word is used at the universities and colleges, both in
England and the United States.
A young student laid a wager with his chum, that the Dean was at that instant smoking his pipe.—Philip's Life and Poems, p. 13.
But his chum
Had wielded, in his just defence,
A bowl of vast circumference.—Rebelliad, p. 17.
Every set of chambers was possessed by two co-occupants; they had generally the same bedroom, and a common study; and they were called chums.—De Quincey's Life and Manners, p. 251.
I am again your petitioner in behalf of that great chum of literature, Samuel Johnson.—Smollett, in Boswell.
In this last instance, the word chum is used either with the more extended meaning of companion, friend, or, as the sovereign prince of Tartary is called the Cham or Khan, so Johnson is called the chum (cham) or prince of literature.
CHUM. To occupy a chamber with another.
CHUMMING. Occupying a room with another.
Such is one of the evils of chumming.—Harvardiana, Vol. I. p. 324.