different between closet vs cabin

English

Etymology

From Middle English closet, from Old French closet, from clos (“private space”) +? -et (“forming diminutives”), from Latin clausum. Equivalent to close +? -et, but generally applied in French solely to small open-air enclosures.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kl?z?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?kl?z?t/
• Rhymes: -?z?t

Noun

closet (plural closets)

1. One used to store food or other household supplies: a cupboard.
   1. • 1799 May 17, Jane Austen, letter:

        A Closet full of shelves... it... should therefore be called a Cupboard rather than a Closet.

2. (obsolete) Any private area, (particularly) bowers in the open air.
   • c. 1370, Robert Cicyle, l. 57 f.:

     A slepe hym toke
     In hys closet.

3. (now rare) Any private or inner room, (particularly):
   • 1776, Oliver Goldsmith, The Haunch of Venison, a Poetical Epistle to Lord Clare

     a chair-lumbered closet, just twelve feet by nine

   1. (obsolete) A private room used by women to groom and dress themselves.
      • 1530, John Palsgrave, Lesclarcissement, p. 206:

        Closet for a lady to make her redy in, chamberette.

   2. (archaic) A private room used for prayer or other devotions.
      • 1611, Bible (KJV), Matthew, 6:6:

        When thou prayest, enter into thy closet.

   3. (figuratively, archaic) A place of (usually, fanciful) contemplation and theorizing.
      • a. 1600, Robert Hooker, Of Lawes Eccl. and Politie, Ch. vii, § 24:

        ...abroad and at home, at their Tables or in their Closets...

   4. (archaic) The private residence or private council chamber of a monarch.
4. (obsolete) A pew or side-chapel reserved for a monarch or other feudal lord.
   • c. 1390, Sir Gawain & the Green Knight, §I, 934 ff.:

     Chaplayne? to þe chapeles chosen þe gate...
     Þe lorde loutes þerto, & þe lady als,
     In-to a comly closet coyntly ho entre?.

   • 1530, John Palsgrave, Lesclarcissement, p. 206:

     Closet, chapelle.

5. A private cabinet, (particularly):
   1. (obsolete) One used to store valuables.
      • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar, Act III, Scene ii, l. 130:

        But heere's a Parchment... I found it in his Closset, 'tis his Will.

   2. (archaic) One used to store curiosities.
      • 1659, Elias Ashmole, Diary, p. 326:

        Mr. Tradescant and his wife told me they had been long considering upon whom to bestow their closet of curiosities when they died.

      • 1681, Marquis of Halifax, Seasonable Addresses to the Houses of Parliament in Concise Succession, p. 10:

        The late House of Commons have... seiz'd Closets and Writings without Information.

   3. (figuratively) A secret or hiding place, (particularly) the hiding place in English idioms such as in the closet and skeleton in the closet.
      • 1530, Myroure of Oure Ladye, Ch. ii, p. 233:

        Went the sonne of god oute of the pryuy closet of the maydens wombe.

      The closet can be a scary place for a gay teenager.

      He's so far in the closet, he can see Narnia.

6. (now chiefly Scotland, Ireland) Any small room or side-room, (particularly):
   1. (US) One intended for storing clothes or bedclothes.
   2. (obsolete) Clipping of closet of ease, (later, Britain) clipping of water closet: a room containing a toilet.
7. (heraldry) An ordinary similar to a bar but half as broad.
   • 1572, J. Bossewell, Wks. Armorie, p. 12:

     A Closset is the halfe of the Barre, and tenne of them maie be borne in one fielde.

8. (Scotland, obsolete) A sewer.
9. A state or condition of secrecy, privacy, or obscurity.

Synonyms

• (place of fanciful theorization): armchair
• (furniture or shelving used for storage): See cabinet
• (room with a toilet): See Thesaurus:bathroom

Hyponyms

• (A small closet with built-in lock): locker
• (A small room used for storage): walk-in closet, storage room
• (A storage area set into a wall, used for storing food or dishware): cupboard, pantry, larder, cabinet
• (A piece of furniture, used for storing clothes): wardrobe, armoire, press (Irish & Scots)
• (A piece of furniture, used for storing food or dishware): cupboard, sideboard, cabinet, press (Irish & Scots), wardrobe (UK)

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Czech: klozet
• ? Spanish: clóset
• ? Welsh: closet

Translations

Adjective

closet (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Private.
2. Secret, (especially) with reference to gay people who are in the closet; closeted.

   He's a closet case.

See also

• out

Verb

closet (third-person singular simple present closets, present participle closeting, simple past and past participle closeted)

1. (transitive) To shut away for private discussion.

   The ambassador has been closeted with the prime minister all afternoon. We're all worried what will be announced when they exit.

2. (transitive) To put into a private place for a secret interview or interrogation.
   • 1834-1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent.

     He was to call a new legislature, to closet its members.

   • 1856-1870, James Anthony Froude, History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada

     He had been closeted with De Quadra.

3. (transitive) To shut up in, or as in, a closet for concealment or confinement.
   • 1784, William Cowper, Tirocinium, or A Review of Schools, [1]

     See what contempt is fallen on human kind; […] See Bedlam's closeted and handcuff'd charge / Surpass'd in frenzy by the mad at large;

   • 1992, Toni Morrison, Jazz, p. 55,

     […] she had to look twice over her shoulder when the Gay Northeasters and the City Belles strolled down Seventh Avenue, they were so handsome. But this envy-streaked pleasure Alice closeted, and never let the girl see how she admired those ready-for-bed-in-the-street clothes.

Derived terms

• closeted
• closet oneself

See also

• come out

References

Anagrams

• colets, telcos

Old French

Etymology

clos +? -et.

Noun

closet m (oblique plural closez or closetz, nominative singular closez or closetz, nominative plural closet)

1. small enclosed area, such as a field or a paddock

Romanian

Etymology

From English (water) closet, via French (water-)closet and semi-calque German (Wasser)Klosett.

Noun

closet n (plural closete)

1. toilet, latrine, bathroom

See also

• baie
• toalet?

References

• Romanian vocabulary. In: Haspelmath, M. & Tadmor, U. (eds.) World Loanword Database. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Spanish

Noun

closet m (plural closets)

1. Alternative spelling of clóset

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kl?s?t/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English closet.

Alternative forms

• closed

Noun

closet m (plural closetau)

1. closet

Etymology 2

Inflected form of cloi.

Alternative forms

• cloet (colloquial)
• cloit (literary)

Verb

closet

1. (colloquial) second-person singular conditional of cloi

Mutation

References

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present) , “closet”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

English

Etymology

From Middle English caban, cabane, from Old French cabane, from Medieval Latin capanna (“a cabin”); see further etymology there. Doublet of cabana.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kæb?n/
• Rhymes: -æb?n

Noun

cabin (plural cabins)

1. (US) A small dwelling characteristic of the frontier, especially when built from logs with simple tools and not constructed by professional builders, but by those who meant to live in it.
   • 1994, Michael Grumley, "Life Drawing" in Violet Quill

     And that was how long we stayed in the cabin, pressed together, pulling the future out of each other, sweating and groaning and making sure each of us remembered.

2. (informal) A chalet or lodge, especially one that can hold large groups of people.
3. A private room on a ship.
4. The interior of a boat, enclosed to create a small room, particularly for sleeping.
5. The passenger area of an airplane.
6. (travel, aviation) The section of a passenger plane having the same class of service.
7. (rail transport, informal) A signal box.
8. A small room; an enclosed place.
9. (India) A private office; particularly of a doctor, businessman, lawyer, or other professional.

Synonyms

• cell
• chamber
• hut
• pod
• shack
• shed

Antonyms

• hall
• palace
• villa

Derived terms

• cabin boy
• cabin cruiser
• log cabin
• signal cabin

Descendants

• ? French: cabine (see there for further descendants)
• ? Japanese: ???? (kyabin)
• ? Korean: ?? (kaebin)

Translations

Verb

cabin (third-person singular simple present cabins, present participle cabining, simple past and past participle cabined)

1. (transitive) To place in a cabin or other small space.
2. (by extension) To limit the scope of.
   • 2019, Sonia Sotomayor, dissenting, Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, page 16, note 11:

     There was a time when this Court’s precedents may have portended the kind of First Amendment liability for purely private property owners that the majority spends so much time rejecting. […] But the Court soon stanched that trend. See Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner, 407 U. S. 551, 561–567 (1972) (cabining Marsh and refusing to extend Logan Valley); Hudgens v. NLRB, 424 U. S. 507, 518 (1976) (making clear that “the rationale of Logan Valley did not survive” Lloyd).

3. (intransitive, obsolete) To live in, or as if in, a cabin; to lodge.

See also

• cabana

Further reading

• cabin in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• cabin in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• cabin at OneLook Dictionary Search