The Same Word for a Hut and an Aircraft's Interior
A cabin is a small simple house, or the enclosed space where passengers sit. Both senses come from a Latin word for a hut.
A cabin is a small simple dwelling, or a compartment on a ship or aircraft. Both senses go back to Late Latin *capanna*, a hut: a ship's cabin was a shelter built on deck, and when aircraft arrived the word transferred straight across, which is why passengers today sit in something named after a peasant's hut. The related *cabinet* began as a little cabin, then a small private room, then the furniture and finally a government's inner council.
- A simple house. *A log cabin.*
- A compartment on a ship. *A first-class cabin.*
- An aircraft's passenger area. *Cabin crew.*
- Cabin fever — restlessness from confinement. *A touch of cabin fever.*
- Cabinet — from the same root. *The cabinet met.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | cabin | A wooden cabin. |
| Plural | cabins | Six cabins. |
| Compound | cabin crew | The cabin crew. |
| Related | cabinet | A filing cabinet. |
| Latin | capanna | A hut. |
- They rented a cabin by the lake.Dwelling.
- Please stow bags in the overhead lockers before cabin doors close.Aviation.
- Three weeks indoors gave him cabin fever.Idiom.
From hut to government
- Capanna — Late Latin for a hut
- Cabin — a small dwelling, then a ship's compartment
- Cabinet — a little cabin, then a private room
- The Cabinet — the ministers who met in that private room
- Cabin crew — the twentieth-century transfer to aircraft
Old French *cabane*, from Late Latin *capanna*, a hut, of uncertain earlier origin. English has it from the 1300s.
Are cabin and cabinet related?
Yes. Cabinet is a diminutive: a little cabin, meaning a small private room, then the furniture and the council that met there.
What is cabin fever?
Irritability and restlessness from being confined indoors for a long time. The phrase is American, from the nineteenth century.