Cupboard

How to spell cupboard

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cupboard

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cupboard mean?

1. nounA piece of furniture or a recess fitted with doors and shelves, used for storing crockery, food, or other household items.

Cupboard in a sentence

• She stacked the clean plates in the kitchen cupboard.

• The spare blankets are kept in the hallway cupboard.

Where does cupboard come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a transparent compound of two old English words, 'cup' and 'board', yet the way it is pronounced hides its origins completely. In Middle English a 'cuppe-bord' was literally a board or open shelf on which cups, plates, and other tableware were displayed, much like a sideboard at a feast. 'Cup' descends from the Old English 'cuppe', itself borrowed from the Late Latin 'cuppa', a drinking vessel, while 'board' comes from the Old English 'bord', meaning a plank or table. Over the 1500s and 1600s the open display shelf gradually became an enclosed cabinet with doors for storing goods, which is the meaning we keep today. The spelling trap is that the original two words were welded together but the pronunciation collapsed: the 'p' fell silent and 'board' shrank to a weak '-berd', so writers who spell by ear lose both the 'p' and the full '-board'.

How the word is built

• cup (drinking vessel)
• board (plank, table)