▪ I. cellar, n.
(ˈsɛlə(r))
Forms: 3–5 celer(e, 4–6 seler, 4–7 celler, (5 celar), 5–7 seller, 6–7 sellar, (7 sellor), 7– cellar.
[ME. celer, a. Anglo-F. celer, OF. celier (mod.F. cellier):—L. cellārium set of cells, receptacle for food, f. cella cell.]
† 1. a. A store-house or store-room, whether above or below ground, for provisions; a granary, buttery, or pantry. Obs. exc. dial. in fish-cellar; see quot. 1848; cf. also coal-cellar, wine-cellar.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 214 He stikeð euer iðe celere, oðer iðe kuchene. a 1300 Cursor M. 4676 Siþen commanded [ioseph] him-selue Depe selers for to delue. a 1340 Hampole Psalter cxliii. 15 Þaire celers ful riftand. c 1375 O.E. Prayers in Rel. Ant. I. 40 The kyng hath led me in to a wyn-celer. 1382 Wyclif Luke xii. 24 Biholde ȝe crowis..to whiche is no celer, nether beerne, and God fedith hem. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 33 Kepe hit fro ayre..In cofer, or huche or seler merke. 1483 Cath. Angl. 56 A Celler, cellarium..etc. vbi a butry. 1483 Caxton Esope 2 b, He fonde the celer open.. and hath eten al the fygges. c 1535 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 1031 Brynge this gentilman to the seller & make him good chere. 1598 Florio, Cella..a seller or butterie. 1663 Cowley Verses & Ess. (1669) 131 Sellars and Granaries in vain we fill, With all the bounteous Summers store. 1848 C. A. Johns Week at Lizard 41 Here is a fish-cellar..a place for salting, keeping, and storing away pilchards. |
† b. fig. Obs.| a 1340 Hampole Psalter lv. 12 Of þe awtere of my hert and þe celere of my consyens cumes all þat i kyndel in þi luf. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 77 Paradys..was þe celer and place of all fairenesse. 1480 Cambriæ Epit. 64 in Map's Poems (1841) App., God..Made that lond..To be selere of all hele. 1565 Jewel Repl. Harding (1611) 393 A man..being brought by God into his inward cellers, may from thence obtaine the true vnderstanding, and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. |
2. a. An underground room or vault.
This sense occurs contextually in some of the earlier
quots.; it is impossible to determine at what period the notion of ‘store-room’ began to give place to that of ‘underground chamber’.
Cotgr. 1611 has it as the
transl. of
Fr. cave, and Minsheu 1617 gives as its equivalents
Fr. cave and
Lat. hypogæum.
| [1331 Literæ Cantuar. (Rolls) I. 400 Nostre celer de nostre novele meson de piere en Chepe.] c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls.) 2068 In Londone he dide hure kepe Vnder erthe in a seler depe. c 1450 Merlin 125 In roches or in seleres under erthe. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. 29 In a moyst seller, vnderneath the grounde. 1633 T. Stafford Pac. Hib. viii. (1821) 572 They were constrayned to retyre into the Sellors. 1787 T. Jefferson Corr. (1830) 123 A fine piece of mosaic, still on its bed, forms the floor of a cellar. 1873 Morley Rousseau I. 41 After..six weeks..passed in the garret or cellar of his rude patroness. 1877 Bryant Song of Tower vii, In..the damp cellar's stifling air. |
† b. transf. Applied to the grave.
Obs.| c 1550 Lacy Wyl Bucke's Test., I bequeth mi body to the colde seler. |
c. With defining words prefixed, as
beer-cellar,
coal-cellar,
wine-cellar, which see under their initial element.
3. Often for
wine-cellar; hence
transf. the contents of the wine-cellar, a person's stock of wines.
| 1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 12. §10 The sergeant of the sellar..shall also be than and there redy with a pot of redde wine. 1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 137 My Cellar is in a rocke by th' sea-side. 1706–7 Farquhar Beaux' Strat. i. i, I have now in my Cellar Ten Tun of the best Ale in Staffordshire. 1841 Emerson Lect. Conserv. Wks. (Bohn) II. 274 O conservatism! your pantry is full of meats and your cellar of wines. Mod. He gives very good dinners, but I don't think much of his cellar. |
† 4. A box, a case;
esp. for holding bottles; a case of bottles. (For
salt-cellar cf. saler, of which
-cellar is a corruption.)
Obs.| 1632 B. Jonson Magn. Lady iii. i. (D.) Run for the cellar of strong waters quickly. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. xiii. 61 Boy fetch my cellar of bottles. 1667 Pepys Diary 1 Apr., His wife afterwards did..give me a cellar of waters of her own distilling. |
¶ 5. for
soler, upper-room.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 15208 He þam lent..A celer in at ete. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) III. 285 Goenge to a hie parte of the seller [solarii] or chamber. |
6. attrib. and
Comb., as
cellar-bin,
cellar-door,
cellar-keeper, etc.;
cellarless adj.; also
cellar-book, a book containing an account of the stock of wines, etc. in a cellar;
cellar-flap, a flap on hinges, level with the surface of the ground, opening into a cellar;
cellar-kitchen, a kitchen below the ground-floor, a basement kitchen;
cellar-physic, wine;
cellar-plate, an iron plate in the pavement covering the entrance-hole of a coal-cellar;
cellar-slug, a large striped slug found in cellars;
cellar-way, a passage through, or as if through, cellars.
| 1883 Lloyd Ebb & Fl. I. 2 Its *cellar-bins—some one else's patent. |
| 1769 G. Selwyn Let. 4 July in Hist. MSS. Comm. (1897) 15th Rep., App. VI. 248 According to my *cellar book you will have had in all ten dozen. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xxiv. 202 He..overhauled the butler's cellar-book. 1920 G. Saintsbury (title) Notes on a cellar-book. |
| 1684 Gt. Frost (1844) 14 Their carelessly leaving open *sellar door. 1697 C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 193 It is as big as a Cellar-door key. |
| 1884 T. W. Hime Public Health 57 Prohibition of occupying of *Cellar Dwellings. |
| 1883 Daily News 10 Jan. 6/7 Injuries received..in falling over the *cellar-flap. |
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Cillero, a *celler-keeper. |
| 1793 J. Beresford in Looker-on No. 54 Cow-heel and such *cellar-messes. |
| 1697 W. Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 542 Fine Air..good Kitchin and *Cellar Physick. |
| 1881 Daily News 22 Apr. 2/6 The defendant was legally liable in having his *cellar plate unfastened. |
| 1882 Garden 30 Dec. 579/2 A fine example of the *cellar slug. |
| a 1762 S. Niles in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1861) V. 512 Two or three were found lying..in the *cellar-way. 1867 Howells Ital. Journ. 47 The effect of the buildings vaulted above the sidewalks is that of a continuous cellarway. |
▪ II. cellar, v. (
ˈsɛlə(r))
[f. prec. n.] trans. To put into a cellar; to store up as in a cellar. Also,
to cellar in, and
fig.| 16.. Cotton, There underground a magazine Of sovereign juice is cellared in. 1677 R. Cary Chronol. i. i. 1 vii. 23 They had ended their Vintage..and were ready to Seller their Wine. 1873 W. S. Mayo Never Again ii. 17 His sympathies..cellared in the depths of his own mind. 1885 Law Times LXXX. 191/1 A pipe of port wine, which was cellared for the plaintiffs. 1886 Athenæum 3 July 18/2. |
▪ III. cellar var. of
celure,
Obs.