<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (February 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (February 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> A glove compartment or glovebox or glovie is a compartment built into the dashboard, located over the front - seat passenger's footwell in an automobile, often used for miscellaneous storage . The name derives from the original purpose of the compartment, to store gloves . They were sometimes in a box on the floorboard near the driver, hence the alternate moniker of a "glovebox". In most vehicles, the glove compartment closes with a latch, with the option of being locked with a key (often desirable when using valet service, or when parking while the convertible top is down, or when the compartment contains a mechanism to open the trunk). </P> <P> In Barbados, South Africa, Zimbabwe, as well as parts of Southern Minnesota and Northwest Wyoming, the glove compartment is commonly referred to as a "cubby - hole". </P>

Where did the word glove box come from