No, not a question about the Lion or the Witch, but one about the Wardrobe - well two, actually.

a) who perceives a difference between wardrobes and cupboards? I don't for clothes - they're both for hanging clothes - but for anything other than clothes, it's a cupboard.
b) reading about medieval England, there's the people in charge of the King's Wardrobe, which has little/nothing to do with clothes. Any ideas on how the transformation happened?

Interesting topic. To me, a US'n from the midwest, a cupboard is anything pertaining to storage of kitchen items(dishes, pots and pans, dry goods, cleaning supplies). These are usually fixed to the walls, but not always. A wardrobe is a detached closet, a piece of furniture almost exclusively for the storage of clothing. In Spanish, a wardrobe is called ropero, clothing = ropa. I'm not remembering cupboard in Spanish right now, only trastero, the cupboard where dishes are stored. Roperos are much more prevalent in Mexico than closets, while the reverse is true where I live now.

In children's illustrated books of nursery rhymes, Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard is shown in a variety of ways. Sometimes it's a free-standing cupboard; others, it's a cupboard attached to the wall.

I personally think of cupboards as attached to the wall in my neck of the woods. Wardrobes can be full-length closets attached or unattached for holding clothes.

I have no idea what a king's wardrobe, clothing aside, would be

Also, someone's wardrobe can be considered to be the overall clothing one has access to.

Interesting topic, yes. My wardrobe's in a mess, yes. I need to organize it!

Part one of your question has been discussed before, -- but it was a tangent, and might be hard to look up, and it went of on tangents, too, so there might be stuffed we have missed.

part 2, is brand new topic.. and i haven't pulled out my dictionary, but i think ward as in ward room goes is related to the meaning of ward as stewardship-- (a lame example, Robin was Batman's ward in the comics!) the idea that a king had stewardship over a people, and was responsible for them -- prisoners today, are still called 'Wards of the state' the state provides food, clothing and other items, and the same is true of children in foster care. the foster parents are paid to care for the children, the childern are wards of the state.

i suspect a Wardrobe was a group concerned with the states duties, and might have also been a privy councel. someone or some group of people very close to the king, who help him with his duties, especially internal affairs. Oopps, domestic, ooops that can be misleading too, Homeland duties.
in US it would be something like the State Department, and now i suspect in England it would be the Home Sect., as for the robe part of a Kings Wardrobe.. i don't know.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines wardrobe as a secret room, espa bedroom.

So it seems logical that the King's wardrobe would be a closet space off the bedroom where he would dress (??). Similar to today's walk-in closet.

Well, the King's Wardrobe could be two entirely different things, couldn't it? Or couldn't it have been?

I think C.S. Lewis's wardrobe would have been a room off the bedroom, although I haven't read the book. Really should. But I've heard people talk about it so I'm drawing conclusions based on conversations.

And closets used to be fairly large rooms. I know this from reading. Some character would retire to her closet. Now this confused me as a kid--I couldn't imagine seriously writing letters in my little closet (far from a walk-in), and I wondered at these great ladies, in the books read, who would retire to their closets to write a letter. I figured closets back then must have been very different from the little closets I knew--or else, these were very peculiar ladies to crunch themselves up, they in their long dresses and wigs, and write a letter. Very secretive, strange ladies these must have been, I thought.

Hi Alexis,

Well, I would never use cupboard for storing clothing. Here in Québec, cupboard is used for storage space in the kitchen.

Wardrobes are those stand-up moveable furniture thingies in which you hang your clothing (robes = dresses in French).

Closets are all the other storage areas around the house that are not in the kitchen and are shut off with a door. In bedrooms you sometimes have walk-in closets - places to store your clothes that are the size of a small room. Not in my bedroom mind you, which is probably the size of the average walk-in

I'm not sure of the second part of your question though. HOWEVER, isn't wardrobe still used as the name of a room in the theatre - where people go to change costumes?

Hi bel -

maybe this is a Canajun thing, then? because I put my clothes in a closet, and my kitchen things in cupboards. I also have a cupboard in the bathroom for toothpaste and other toiletries....

The wardrobe mentioned in The Lion, The Witch and... is a detached, free-standing creature, in the illustration (ie, not necessarily a representation sanctioned by the author) in the edition I have (Puffin 1979 reprint). However, the language describing it seems to suggest it was a free-standing unit:

And shortly after that they looked into a room that was quite empty except for one big wardrobe...

It later says the only other thing in the room was a dead bluebottle...so I'm guessing the wardrobe was also something that could be moved (although with considerably more effort than the bluebottle!). In a later book it is revealed that the wardrobe was made from the wood of a tree planted in a garden in London - so yes, it must've been free-standing, no?

My impression is that wardrobes are free-standing closets; closets are set into the wall in a room; and cupboards are smaller units, often with shelves (as opposed to the closet or wardrobe's single shelf, along the top, a cupboard may have more than one - and even if it only has one, that often breaks the cupboard's space in half, if ye know what I mean).

Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.

to me, and other US's can correct or modify, a wardrobe is a collection of clothes.
I have a large wardrobe, dozens of skirts, jackets i count to the teens, blouses, tops, sweater sets galore. (don't i wish!) I have run out out of closet space to store my wardrobe.

(well that true, but my circa 1925 house has very small closets, and one one per bedroom, and a coat closet so small, i have be careful what kind of hangers i use)

I have lots of kitchen cabinets,, new modern ones, not the old built in shelves and cupboards my mother had. surprizingly, the largest closet is the linen closet, in the upstairs hall.

In the basement, under the cellar stairs, i have small pantry, but its only good for canned goods, its too musty for flour or dry goods.
wardrobe=collection of clothes
closet=storage area with pole for hanging hangers on, and high shelf
California closets=small windowless rooms, for clothing storage.
Walk in closet=small california closet
cabinets=permenently mounted storage for food and dishes, usually found in a kitchen, they have doors and shelves. some are floor mounted, and some hang from the wall. (floor mounted ones provide surface or work space.)
pantry =large closet with shelves for storing food
linen closet= closet with shelved for storing linens/blankets
cupboards=a build in cabinet for storing dishes and food.
hoosier= a free standing unit, similar to a cupboard. (a specific style of a cupboard)
Welsh dresser= a more ornate free standing cupboard
china cabinet= similar to a welsh dresser, but larger
credenza= a free standing table height cabinet, usually ornate, or matching a dining room table. for the storage of dishes and table linens. top service often used to hold platters of food (especially at holidays)

chifforobe= a free standing piece of furniture (that my grandmother had) for hanging clothing. often has one or more drawers, for storage as well. (an antique!)

Okay then, what about a sideboard?

Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.

In my home, a sideboard was a small table with extra cutlery, condiments, and room to set down
large dishes brought in from kitchen. Sometimes canapés and later desserts might be placed there.

your sideboard is my credenza! do you use a sieve or colendar to drain your spaghetti?
My mother always used the "continental" term, so that is what i use.

well actually i don't own a credenza, i use a folding tea trolly! a small rolling cart to hold dishes and cakes!

My notion of sideboard comes from the one in my parents' home: it is far taller and narrower than a table. It is taller than yer average human bean, in fact. We use the top for storing board games; there are two cupboards, one at either end, and one holds tankards (beer mugs) and t'other holds booze (but is not a tantalus - though there is a lock, I don't remember it ever being used! and there's no glass in the door); there is a small cavity above either cupboard, and shelves between cupboards and cavities, and these, in our family, have traditionally held knick-knacks and books. On a level with the bottom of the cupboards and the bottom shelf, is a narrow, protruding shelf, probably not even a foot deep - probably the place serving dishes with food in were usually set, but again, in my family, used for knick-knacks and books. Beneath this there are three drawers; we use these for silverware and other cutlery, and placemats and tablecloths. Beneath the drawers, the legs of the sideboard go down to the ground and enclose a kind of "nothing" space, which I used to enjoy crawling in and making hidey-holes of (with blankets stuck in the drawers so they hung down in a concealing manner!) when I was little. Now we keep things like a box of video tapes, a magazine rack, and Mum's sewing machine, under there. The sideboard actually has six legs, I think I'm remembering correctly - and a railing running around the bottom, touching each leg. It is a monster of a piece of furniture, that's fer shure.

Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.

chifforobe= what we'd call a wardrobe.

The only time I've ever seen/heard the word chiffarobe was in To Kill a Mockingbird book and movie. I've never heard it elsewhere.

Sideboard is a word completely unknown to me. Your description is pretty complete so I can say that I've never seen anything like it either.

Have been meaning to add to this for some time....Quoting (with permission) from a PM:

A sideboard was a specialized piece of furniture that people kept for the start of a hunt. It would be carried outside and piled high with food for the riders to eat from while on horseback. Sometimes they remained on a porch rather than being carried all the way into and out of the house.

It had long skinny legs which would be minimally affected by the urine and horse manure dropped helter skelter by the mounts.

Apparently it was also called a "hunt board."

Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.

Have you ever heard this term?

If any of you are ever in the Richmond, Virginia, USA, area, do not miss seeking out Maymont, a hundred-acre estate bequeathed to the city of Richmond by Sallie May and James Branch Dooley.

Anyway, on the grounds of Maymont there is the Dooley house, and in the dining room is the largest breakfront I've ever seen in my life of limited travels. It is a monstrous cabinet for china, something of such mythic proportions, one feels like a very small child in trying to take it in.

(The house also has a swan bed--yes, a bed that has been fashioned from tulip poplar to look like an enormous swan--and a dressing table made from silver and narwhale tusks.)