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
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