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

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

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

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 :)

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.

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

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.

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)...

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.

Edited 2010-04-21 09:21 (UTC)

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?

'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.

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.

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

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

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

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!

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.

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!

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!

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.

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?"

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.

Edited 2010-04-22 15:44 (UTC)

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.

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.

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