Ask Mr. Know-It-All: What's with all those “Litter Cum Recyclables Collection Bins”?

Let’s get this out of the way. No, it’s not dirty. “Cum” is Latin for “along with” or “and”—the way that you would graduate summa cum laude, “with highest praise.” In English, it’s generally used to imply that something has two purposes: so you might take a potential conquest back to the bedroom-cum-study in your walkup flat, for example. Or more realistically, you might be trying to convince her that your bedroom-cum-study-cum-living-room-cum-kitchen-cum-hellhole is an OK place to spend a night.

 

The problem is, as Mr. Know-It-All hardly needs to remind you, that the English language has moved on a little since those days when we all knew our Virgil from our Homer. These days, the word “cum” brings to mind a joining of a whole other kind. And the Hong Kong government, as you might expect, is a little behind the curve.  

 

You can blame the British, of course: there are towns and parishes in England named for joined settlements which boast the word. There but for the grace of God you could have been born in Leiston-cum-Sizewell or Stow-cum-Quy, which at least has the benefit of sounding like a beef brisket noodle shack. Similarly, Indian English is a fan of the construction. Snickering tourists? Yup—blame colonialism once again.

 

So Hong Kong is still home to fire station-cum-ambulance depots, seminars-cum-networking dinners and, yes, litter-cum-recyclables bins. But not for much longer—all over town, you’ll have noticed a series of green stickers going up over the offending word. The space is now occupied by a simple forward slash. Perhaps we are moving into an age of bilingual language sensitivity, at long last?

 

Then again, perhaps not. A simple search of government websites yields rich fruit still. After all, you could still take a gander at the “International Students’ Visual Arts Contest-cum-Exhibition”; immerse yourself in the “Ping Shan Tang Clan Gallery-cum-Heritage Trail Visitors Centre”; or eat up at an “Opening Ceremony-cum-Gala Dinner.” 

 

Who needs to laugh at Chinglish, when English is ludicrous all on its own?