coin laundry

Question

I hear "coin laundry" is Japanese English for coin-operated laundry or laundromat. However, I have heard some native English speakers living in Japan use the word "coin laundry". Do you hear the word in English-spoken countries?

Clive · Accepted Answer

I don't. I usually hear laundromat.

GPY · Answer

In the UK they are most often called "laund(e)rettes" I think. "coin laundry" is intelligible, but not a term that I would use. It is possible I might say "coin-operated laundry" if I momentarily forgot the word "laund(e)rette".

GPY · Answer

These are interesting:

BrE:
http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=laundrette%2Claunderette%2Ccoin+laundry&year_start=1940&year_end=2000&corpus=18&smoothing=3&share=

AmE:
http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=laundrette%2Claunderette%2Ccoin+laundry&year_start=1940&year_end=2000&corpus=17&smoothing=3&share=

Suggests "coin laundry" has recently gained a lot of popularity in the US but is very uncommon in the UK.

PS: though "laundromat" is more common still in the US... forgot to add that one!

Moguwai007 · Answer

@Clive @GPY Thank you very much for your information. The links also give me a deeper understanding of how words are used. I appreciate your help.

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