On Fri, 17 Jan 1997, Montserrat Pin wrote:

> offend me.  Maybe I have not grasped, not being English speaking, the
> meaning of closet.
> ----------
> On the 14th Janis Wilkens wrote:
>
> >Do we know they *have* closets?  I thought closets were a pretty recent,
> >mostly American phenomenon.  Can anyone clarify this?

I suspect that we do, indeed, have a problem of definitions here.

I would guess that Janis Wilkens was referring to the walk-in
ROOMS (anywhere from tiny 5 feet deep by 10-12 feet wide to the
20 feet by 30 feet closets that are increasingly common in the
"mini-estate" subdivisions cropping up like weeds all over the
country -- that are used for storing the family's clothing,
shoes, and other such items -- or linens, china, silver, etc.

Conversely, other respondents are probably referring to the pieces
of FURNITURE that serve as storage facilities for clothes, shoes,
etc.

In my 10 years (1982-1992) in Western and Eastern Europe, Turkey,
Greece, the Balkan countries, Middle East, and North Africa, I doubt
if I encountered room-type closets even five times in my own
apartments or houses or those of friends.  Those I did see in
PRIVATE HOUSES (castles, palaces, museums, and other large public
buildings often had storage rooms (but not for the owner's or
visitor's socks, underwear, out-of-season clothes, etc.) were all
of fairly recent construction or in large manor houses.

So maybe, once again, it's just a matter of semantics.     --Jim