# Has the word "cellar" completely been overtaken by "basement?" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 14, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240 "2008-04-14T01:10:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/1 "2008-04-14T01:10:35Z")
I hardly ever hear anyone say “cellar” anymore. The only time I do is when they’re talking about a wine cellar. Everyone says “basement” now. “Cellar” seems like it’s an old-fashioned word. Am I right? Do you or does anyone you know still say “cellar?” ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/2 "2008-04-14T01:19:43Z")
To me, “cellar” means something different than “basement.” When I think of a cellar, I think of a storage space under a house. At most, it has shelves. It’s not meant to be a living space. A basement, on the other hand, can be anything from a cellar to a fully-furnished finished living area. ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/3 "2008-04-14T01:28:43Z")
I’ll echo **Athena**. It seems a matter of connotation, rather than denotation, but ‘cellar’ to me, suggests unfinished walls. You could hang out in a basement. You’d shelter from a tornado in a cellar, or store roots there. ---
**Author:** ![Dusty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Dusty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dusty)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/4 "2008-04-14T01:42:15Z")
I tend to also think of them as different things. A basement is more or less finished–not that it has to be heated or plastered or anything, but it has walls, a floor, glass in the windows, etc. A cellar, in my mind, is a more privative affair, just a hole in the ground with a dirt floor and either no windows or unglazed ones. A basement is usually poured concrete, a cellar is built of large granite slabs where visible and loose miscellaneous stones where not. Cellars may not necessarily be under a house (they might be under a barn or a shed or there might not be anything on top of them), but basements always are. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/5 "2008-04-14T01:51:00Z")
See, I think of a basement being accessed from a stairwell within the house, while a cellar can only be accessed from an outside source (like those mostly-horizontal outside doors you see on old farmhouses). If it can be accessed from both, it is still a basement. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/6 "2008-04-14T02:15:31Z")
It might be a regional thing. Where I live, in southern Ontario, essentially all detached houses that aren’t trailers have basements - as described above, an entire floor of the house, mostly below ground, that can be finished and furnished into a living space. A “cellar” sounds to me like something that CAN’T be turned into a rec room or a home office. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/7 "2008-04-14T02:44:02Z")
But people used to call the finished areas a cellar. We would go down in the cellar in our house when I was growing up, and it was finished and had an door to the outside as well as stairs inside. The change was primarily due to real estate marketing. “Basement” sounds better than “cellar,” just as “home” sounds better than “house.” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/8 "2008-04-14T04:28:10Z")
Has the terminology changed in your area, or did you grow up elsewhere? It might just be like the “hoagie/sub/grinder/hero” thing where various places have completely different words to describe the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/9 "2008-04-14T05:46:37Z")
The word “cellar” will have a long shelf life in the sports world, where you have the delightfully rhyming term “cellar dweller” to describe lousy teams. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/10 "2008-04-14T06:41:05Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] But people used to call the finished areas a cellar. [/QUOTE] I think this might have been unique to where you were at. Can’t say I’ve ever heard of anyone calling a finished basement a cellar in all my life. There was a time when the entire concept of a finished or livable basement was unheard of, cellar was probably the common term then. ---
**Author:** ![phil417](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6bbea6/32.png) [@phil417](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phil417)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/11 "2008-04-14T07:10:38Z")
I’m working on having both. My root cellar will have a cool area for crops such as potatoes, squash, and onions. My basement area will have an area for an upright freezer and a washer and dryer. I can dream. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/12 "2008-04-14T09:19:03Z")
[QUOTE=Snooooopy] The word “cellar” will have a long shelf life in the sports world, where you have the delightfully rhyming term “cellar dweller” to describe lousy teams. [/QUOTE] I want “basement placement” to emerge. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/13 "2008-04-14T12:48:37Z")
In this area a basement is made of block or poured cement and you can stand up in it. Any house made since the 60’s has a basement if not built on piles. A cellar is the old stone walled ones often with a dirt floor that you can stand up in. You have to wonder if the stairs will fall down as you use them. You are told not to touch a wall because the stones are loose. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/14 "2008-04-14T13:28:27Z")
[QUOTE=phil417] I’m working on having both. My root cellar will have a cool area for crops such as potatoes, squash, and onions. My basement area will have an area for an upright freezer and a washer and dryer. I can dream. [/QUOTE] My grandparents have both! You have to go through the “basement” to get to the “cellar,” though. But there is definitely a room off to the side that appears to have been dug out by hand and it’s used to store plants, produce and canned goods. When I am trying to score some of grandma’s canned cherries, I say “do you have any cherries in the cellar?” but when I refer to their washing machine I say it’s in the basement. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/15 "2008-04-14T13:40:12Z")
Ditto to ZipperJJ. My grandparents had both a cellar and a basement; they made cheese and it aged in the cheese cellar. And the basement was for laundry. My aunt had a cellar for canned goods and no basement. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/16 "2008-04-14T13:45:40Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ] My grandparents have both! You have to go through the “basement” to get to the “cellar,” though. But there is definitely a room off to the side that appears to have been dug out by hand and it’s used to store plants, produce and canned goods. When I am trying to score some of grandma’s canned cherries, I say “do you have any cherries in the cellar?” but when I refer to their washing machine I say it’s in the basement. [/QUOTE] Same here. In Texas, a cellar was where we stored food, mostly the home grown or home canned variety. I’m sure many big cellars have been converted into normal rooms - but then they aren’t “cellars” anymore. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/17 "2008-04-14T13:59:11Z")
There’s an on-line mape which shows the distribution of basement vs. cellar, but I can’t find it at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/18 "2008-04-14T20:56:07Z")
“Wine basement” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/19 "2008-04-14T20:59:54Z")
It’s the [Harvard Dialect Survey](http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/maps.html), but the maps which show occurrences (by self-reporting) with colored dots on a map of the U.S., are no long available on-line, it seems. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240/20 "2008-04-14T21:12:15Z")
[QUOTE=Captain\_C] See, I think of a basement being accessed from a stairwell within the house, while a cellar can only be accessed from an outside source (like those mostly-horizontal outside doors you see on old farmhouses). If it can be accessed from both, it is still a basement. [/QUOTE] This is how I think of them too. My family used to have a farmhouse and we had a “cellar” not a “basement”. To get access to the cellar, you had to go outside and behind the house to the [cellar doors that looked like this](http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/1273940/2/istockphoto_1273940_cellar_door.jpg). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-word-cellar-completely-been-overtaken-by-basement/445240.md?page=2)