cellar

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English celer,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman celer, also Old French celier (now cellier), a storeroom above or below ground, especially for wine,^[5][6][7] and partly its source, borrowed from Latin cellārium (“storeroom, pantry”).^[5][6][2] The Latin noun is the neuter of cellārius (“of a storeroom”), used as a noun,^[5][6] formed from cella (“small room, storeroom”), the source of cell, and -ārius.^[5][4] Etymonline traces cella to Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to cover, conceal, save”).^[6][3] The Latin word also gave Catalan celler, Spanish cillero and Portuguese celeiro,^[5] and was borrowed early into the Germanic languages: Dutch kelder, German Keller, Swedish källare and Danish kælder.^[5] The spelling with “-ll-” was a variant in Middle English and became the usual one in the 1550s, and the ending “-ar”, also after the Latin, was fixed in the 17th century.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A storehouse or storeroom for provisions, whether above or below ground: probably before 1200 in Barnhart,^[2] ?c1225 in the OED, both in the Ancrene Riwle.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that in early French and English texts it is often hard to tell whether the storeroom was above or below ground.^[5] The general sense lasted, latterly in regional use, until the 19th century,^[5] while a storeroom for wine or ale is recorded from before 1393, in Gower,^[5] and an underground room from the 14th century.^[5][4] Etymonline describes the sense "room under a building, used for storage" as emerging gradually in late Middle and early Modern English.^[6] Cotgrave (1611) used cellar to translate French cave.^[5] From the 1560s the word was used figuratively of anything dark, deep or hidden.^[5] Between 1603 and 1668 it also meant a case for bottles,^[5] a sense the OED explains from saltcellar.^[5] In North American sport, especially baseball, the cellar has been the bottom place in a league since 1903.^[5] By confusion with sollar, cellar could also mean an upper room until the early 17th century.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a place under ground, where stores are reposited".^[9] In Yorkshire dialect the cellar-head was the landing at the top of the cellar stairs.^[10]

Timeline

• ?c1225 – a storeroom for provisions (obsolete by 1848).^[5][2]
• c. 1384 – verb, to dig a cellar (obsolete).^[5]
• before 1393 – a storeroom for wine or ale, and its contents.^[5]
• ?before 1400 – an underground room in a building.^[5]
• 1550 – verb, to store in a cellar.^[5]
• c. 1560 – figurative, something dark, deep or hidden.^[5]
• 1640s – cellar-door.^[6]
• 1903 – in North American sport, the bottom place in a league.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A room or set of rooms below ground level in a building, used especially for storage; compare basement.^[11][12][5]
2. A place where wine is stored.^[11][5]
3. A stock of wines: He keeps an excellent cellar.^[11][5]
4. (North America, sport) The lowest place in the standings of a league.^[5]
5. (archaic) A storeroom for food, whether above or below ground; a pantry or granary (obsolete in general use, ?1225–1848).^[12][5]

Verb

1. To store something, such as wine, in a cellar, especially to let it age: They cellared the vintage for ten years.^[11][12][5]

Word family

• cellarless
• cellarage
• cellarer
• cellaret
• cellarette
• cellarman
• cellarmaster
• subcellar

Related words

• cell
• saltcellar

Usage notes

Cellar meaning a saltcellar is a shortening of that word,^[12] which has a different source: its second part was earlier saler, from French salière, and only later was respelt as if it were cellar.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray