closet

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See also: clóset

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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.[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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closet (plural closets)

  1. One used to store food or other household supplies: a cupboard.
  2. (obsolete) Any private space, (particularly) bowers in the open air.
  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.
    2. (archaic) A private room used for prayer or other devotions.
    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.
  5. A private cabinet, (particularly):
    1. (obsolete) One used to store valuables.
    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.
      The closet can be a scary place for a gay teenager.
      He's so far in the closet, he can see Narnia.
    4. (slang, uncommon) Clipping of closet case.
  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, UK) clipping of water closet: a room containing a toilet.
  7. (heraldry) An ordinary similar to a bar but half as broad.
  8. (Scotland, obsolete) A sewer.
  9. A state or condition of secrecy, privacy, or obscurity.

Synonyms[edit]

Hyponyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

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

Translations[edit]

toilet — see toilet

Adjective[edit]

closet (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete) private
  2. closeted, secret (especially with reference to gay people who are in the closet)
    He's a closet case.
    • 1940, Walton Hall Smith, Liquor, the servant of man:
      I wonder if there is another in the world that could produce, among perfectly normal people, this strangest quirk in the agenda of liquordom, the closet drinker.

See also[edit]

Verb[edit]

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.
  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[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary. "closet, n."

Anagrams[edit]

Old French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From clos +‎ -et.

Noun[edit]

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

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

Portuguese[edit]

A dressing room adjoining a domestic room

Etymology[edit]

Unadapted borrowing from English closet.

Noun[edit]

closet m (plural closets)

  1. dressing room, walk-in closet (US), walk-in wardrobe (UK) (a small room adjoining a domestic bedroom where people may dress or undress in privacy)
    • 2020 September 2, Luane Baptista, “Como montar um closet no apartamento: ideias e orientações”, in CRB Construtora‎[2]:

Further reading[edit]

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

closet n (plural closete)

  1. toilet, latrine, bathroom

Declension[edit]

Declension of closet
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) closet closetul (niște) closete closetele
genitive/dative (unui) closet closetului (unor) closete closetelor
vocative closetule closetelor

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Noun[edit]

closet m (plural closets)

  1. Alternative spelling of clóset

Welsh[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From English closet.

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

closet m (plural closetau)

  1. closet

Further reading[edit]

  • 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

Etymology 2[edit]

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Alternative forms[edit]

Verb[edit]

closet

  1. second-person singular conditional colloquial of cloi

Mutation[edit]

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
closet gloset nghloset chloset
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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