Apparently there's a lot of different terms...

[deird_lj]

Okay. I’m officially intrigued.



[Poll #1553763]

Comments

[angearia.livejournal.com]

My "something else" for storing clothes in the bedroom is what I called a dresser/dresser drawers. Or the closet.

[deird1]

Well, there is that...

I was mainly thinking about the one with doors. (Which I'd always call a wardrobe, even if it was built into the wall like a cupboard.)

[xlivvielockex.livejournal.com]

Huh, interesting. I never really had distinction because it's all just a cabinet. Except where my clothes are, that is a closet. Maybe cause I like things simple or it could be my dad's English wasn't always the best so it was easier to just call anything with doors that didn't have clothes in it a cabinet. LOL

[deird1]

Huh, interesting.

To me, "cabinet" means a specific thing with glass doors for displaying interesting things like pretty teacups.

[ms-scarletibis.livejournal.com]

I was confused by your "laundry room" question.

However, I think that armoires, which can be used for the bedroom or the dining room, should have been mentioned.

Also, in the kitchen, one can put food in the pantry, but if one has no pantry, then there is always the cupboard :)

[deird1]

However, I think that armoires, which can be used for the bedroom or the dining room, should have been mentioned.

*reaches for dictionary...*


I was confused by your "laundry room" question.

I imagine several people will be. :)
In Australia, it's a very normal part of the house.


Also, in the kitchen, one can put food in the pantry, but if one has no pantry, then there is always the cupboard :)

So, there's a distinction in your mind between "cupboard we put all the food in" and "cupboard designed for putting food in"?

[swellen.livejournal.com]

My "something else" for storing sheets is called a linen press. Actually, to be more precise, when I am in my mother's house it's a linen press. In my house it's a linen cupboard. Switching between the two terms is so completely automatic with me that I don't even notice it.

[deird1]

*nods*

I'd call it a linen press too. (And I really should have included it as an option.)

[angearia.livejournal.com]

So who wants to talk about what you call soft drinks? Soda? Pop? Anyone?

[deird1]

Soft drinks! Otherwise known as fizzy drinks, if you're under 10.


What do you call them?



(*loves your icon*)

[owenthurman.livejournal.com]

Some of these I don't have words for at all (but then, I'm a man).

The disturbing ones are the ones I don't have a word for in English but can describe in my second language. I had a quality-furniture-appreciating roommate in a foreign land once.

[deird1]

The disturbing ones are the ones I don't have a word for in English but can describe in my second language.

Hee! I'm a bit like that in skiing...

[quinara]

ZOMG, when Americans talk about a pantry they mean a cupboard? I always thought they meant, you know, a pantry (which would be a whole separate mini room for storing food)...

[deird1]

Wait - Brits mean a separate room when they say pantry?

What do you call it if it's a big cupboard in the kitchen?

[gillo]

It's only a pantry if it's big enough to walk into and move in. Otherwise it's a cupboard. Or the fridge.

Edited to add that the built-in place off the landing where the hot-water tank is and the sheets/towels are kept is an airing cupboard. In our dank, damp country we like to keep our linen somewhere warm.

[deird1]

Oh... is that what an airing cupboard is? I always wondered.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

OK, completely gut-feeling and probably wrong ESL version:

That thing in the kitchen for storing food is a: cupboard. You people don't seem to have a good word for it that I know of. (A pantry is a small kitchen.) There should be a word that's something like "foodery", but alas, there isn't that I know of

That thing in the kitchen for storing dishes is a: cupboard. It's a board with cups on it.

That thing in the bedroom for storing clothes is a: closet. Which is all kinds of wrong now that I think about it since the only other thing that's a closet is a water closet, but nevermind.

That thing in the passage for storing sheets/old books/whatever is a: Yes, that too is a cupboard.

That thing in the laundry for storing random laundry junk is a: Guess. It's a friggin' cupboard.

That thing in the living room for displaying pretty crockery is a: Vitrine. Does anyone actually use that word?

[deird1]

Vitrine? *consults dictionary* Never heard of it... How interesting...


A pantry is a small kitchen.

Meaning somewhere where you cook? As well as storing food? Really?


I agree with your cupboardy ideas. You are very wise. :)

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

'Cupboard' is the generic term for any kind of box-like thing with shelves and a hinged door used for storage. You also get kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinets, and chests of drawers, and wardrobes.

I'd agree with the other British posters that a pantry is a separate room found in large old houses next to the kitchen, used for storing food before refrigerators were invented. On which note, in my own case "That thing in the kitchen for storing food" is called a "fridge" or a "freezer", but I ticked "cupboard" since you didn't give that option. :-)

A closet is also a small room which is private, either for getting dressed in or going to the toilet in (hence, water closet = a closet with plumbing.) It's also where you hide if you don't want people to know you're gay.

A wardrobe would normally be a tall cupboard large enough to hang a suit or a dress in without folding them, but you can also have built-in wardrobes. An armoire is a French wardrobe, or a particular style of antique wooden wardrobe.

[gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com]

Wait. You get dressed in your closet? Really?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Hmm - to me both a 'pantry' and a 'closet' is a small room, not a piece of furniture. Your house either has a pantry (or two, in the case of the one I grew up in), or doesn't (like this one). Modern houses rarely have a pantry, because we have fridges these days.

Same with a closet - you either have a wee room opening off a bedroom, or you don't.

In neither case can you just bung a big cupboard there and declare it to be the room that you don't have. It's like putting a big cupboard on the upstairs landing and calling it the spare bedroom.

[roccondilrinon.livejournal.com]

That thing in the passage for storing sheets/old books/whatever is a linen press.

[roccondilrinon.livejournal.com]

Also, glad but unsurprised to see that you call it that too. Interesting that to some people it's only a pantry if it's like a separate room — that distinction didn't occur to me when I did the poll, but now I think about it I think I'd half-agree with them. Ours isn't exactly a separate room, but it is walk-in, and that I think is the relevant distinction. Anything else with a door and food, except of course for the fridge, would be a cupboard.

To me, "closet" for "wardrobe" just sounds American — I'd only use the word myself in the sense of someone coming out of one.

[next_to_normal]

What is this "passage" of which you speak? Do you mean the hallway?

[deird1]

Well, kinda. But I'd think the hallway meant the bit attached to the front door - whereas the passage is just a long area with doors coming off it, but not including the front door.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

The one I want to take issue with is: That thing in the bedroom for storing clothes is a:

If it's built into the wall and has doors (or a place for doors--my sister's is currently missing doors and has a curtain-type thing in its place), it's a closet.

If it's free-standing and has drawers, it's a dresser or a chest of drawers.

If it's free-standing and has doors (and possibly also drawers--mine has three at the bottom), it's an armoire, which I've only seen one other person mention here. But then, I am Southern, and we tend to do things differently.

The only time I talk about "wardrobes" is when I'm referencing Narnia. :D

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Haha, I agree with Narnia, and 'armoire' is hilarious to me. Also, the idea of having a freestanding dresser, which I've never seen a real, non filthy rich person have.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

As per my comment to Quin above - I'm very freaked out that no one British here has a larder. Less posh than a pantry, I think, and quite common in 1920s/30s houses and earlier. Tends to have a stone/cement/tiled floor or otherwise be naturally chillier than the kitchen.

Am I really the only LJ person who thinks this is a normal word? Ack! I am a freak!

[angearia.livejournal.com]

*laughs and points*

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

The pantry in my kitchen is for long term food storage - canned goods, jarred sauces, peanut butter, etc.

The cabinets in my kitchen store dishes and short term foods - oils, vinegars, sugar, flour, etc.

Living room knick knacks are on shelves - built in in my case.

Towels and sheets are stored in the linen closet which is in the bathroom.

Clothes are in the dresser and the walk in closet(s) in the bedroom.

There is a built in table in my laundry room which is where laundry detergents and the like go. I don't iron ever, so that isn't an issue.

And books are in bookcases. Lots and lots and lots of bookcases. Also on the floor, in boxes, on tables and well, you name it.

[deird1]

The pantry in my kitchen is for long term food storage - canned goods, jarred sauces, peanut butter, etc.

The cabinets in my kitchen store dishes and short term foods - oils, vinegars, sugar, flour, etc.

*is slightly puzzled*

Why do you need two separate places? Won't all the food fit in the pantry?

[whichclothes.livejournal.com]

This made me realize how confusing the terms we use in my household might be to anyone but us. The things in the kitchen that hang on the wall, in which dishes and spices are stored, are cupboards. The exact same things in the kitchen, only under the counter, in which we store pots and pans, are cabinets. The very tall cabinet/cupboard in which much of our food is stored is a pantry. Right next to it is a small, narrow room that connects the kitchen and the living room. This is the butler's pantry (alas, we have no butler). The butler's pantry contains cupboards, where we keep our liquor, and cabinets, where all the small appliances live. There is also a closet in the butler's pantry--a small space with a door, in which we keep, well, weird things that don't go anyplace else, plus all the non-kid DVDs. Next to that (still inside the butler's pantry) is another closet-like space, where we keep more food. We call that the butler's pantry pantry.

The fancy dishes we inherited from grandparents are in the living room in a free-standing piece of furniture called the china cabinet.

Clothes are stored in dressers (free-standing pieces of furniture with slide-out drawers) and in the closet, a mini-room with a door.

Sheets are upstairs in the hallway in the linen closet (which is really pretty much identical to that first pantry I mentioned downstairs, but we call it a closet anyway).

Random laundry junk is in cupboards and cabinets in the laundry room, as well as the closet contained in the same room.

Whew!

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

The things in the kitchen that hang on the wall, in which dishes and spices are stored, are cupboards. The exact same things in the kitchen, only under the counter, in which we store pots and pans, are cabinets. The very tall cabinet/cupboard in which much of our food is stored is a pantry.

This is actually pretty close to how I think of it!

[spikes-wish.livejournal.com]

Here in the UK it's pretty much cupboard for everything. Airing Cupboard, cupboard-under-the-stairs, kitchen cupboards. Nobody really says closet here, it's always wardrobe, or walk-in-wardrobe or built-in-wardrobe.

My Granny had a pantry in the big old farmhouse my Mum grew up in, but it was actually a narrow, long room with stone flors and slate shelves where she...well hoarded everything that might come in useful, as well as food! And although I realise that I said 'cabinet' up above, we actually call it a sideboard in our house! Iwas trying to think of the word, sorry!

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Interesting! What I think of as my pantry's actually not in the kitchen, but we do have cupboards. Then cabinets for dishes (although really I could go with cupboard or cabinet for either of those, but never closet). Bedroom is obvs a closet - wardrobe makes me think of old musty British people and C.S. Lewis. The thing in the 'passage' (or hallway as normal American people call it) is also a closet, and I don't have pretty crockery (aka china), and while I have a laundry thingy I don't really have a name for it.

[klme.livejournal.com]

When people advertise houses for sale here (Aus) they write "WIR" or "BIR" - Walk In Robe (as in wardrobe) or Built In Robe. If you don't say Wardrobe what do they write? "WIC?"

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Some of the answers may be a bit difficult. I know that I used to have a pantry, but I pulled it out in the kitchen reno so all I have are cabinets. So while a thing in the kitchen that holds food may be a pantry it also may not be. The defining line for me is that cabinets are casework/millwork. Pantries are generally larger and more closet-like. Hutches or china cabinets (holding dishes) tend to be pieces of furniture (as are wardrobes) whereas a closet tends to be a small room for storage.

Interesting poll.

[pennydrdful.livejournal.com]

That thing in the living room for displaying pretty crockery is a:
- something else

In my view, it depends of the size of that thing. If it's large, it's a hutch. If it's small.. eh.. I can see someone calling it a cabinet. But generally I lean towards hutch.

[deird1]

That really just makes me think of rabbits...

[libco.livejournal.com]

That thing in the bedroom for storing clothes if you hang them up is a: chifferobe or wardrobe if its a freestanding object-if its built in its a closet. If you put folded clothes in it its a dresser or chest of drawers.

That thing in the passage for storing sheets/old books/whatever is a: trunk

That thing in the laundry for storing random laundry junk is a cabinet or closet or basket, depending on what the thing is.

That thing in the living room for displaying pretty crockery is a: China Hutch.

[libco.livejournal.com]

Also-I forgot we put towels and sheets in the linen closet. Which is usually built in.