cabinet

[Victor Steinbok]

This is a generic observation, not directly related to the "kitchen
cabinet" request I posted earlier. As such, it is not meant to represent
a product of research, just a string of observations that may or may not
prove accurate or useful.

The OED has two main lines of "cabinet" definitions. One identifies
containers, in general, including buildings, rooms, pieces of furniture
(or furniture-like appliances), cases and repositories. The second
refers to uses "in politics", including the meeting room for appointed
advisers or the body of such advisers themselves who would formerly meet
in such a room, or, finally, the meeting of such a body.

The first batch (defs. 1.ab and 2.) are clearly obsolete (small house,
tabernacle, summer home). Def. 3 is listed as obsolete ("a small chamber
or room", etc.) although it deserves a separate comment. Def 4. ("A room
devoted to the arrangement or display of works of art and objects of
vertu; a museum, picture-gallery, etc.") is also listed as obsolete,
although it's meaning has now been transferred to display cases and
containers, where it previously might have applied to an entire room
(e.g., a "display cabinet" is a common reference to a horizontal or
slanted wooden box with a glass top or to a piece of furniture with
glass walls and/or doors).

5.a. is a very long description that is a catch-all for a very diverse
group of objects:

> A case for the safe custody of jewels, or other valuables, letters,
> documents, etc.; and thus, a repository or case, often itself forming
> an ornamental piece of furniture, fitted with compartments, drawers,
> shelves, etc., for the proper preservation and display of a collection
> of specimens. Also, one containing a radio or television receiver or
> the like.

Finally, 6. is also listed as obsolete, although it also earned a "Fig."
tag.

> A secret receptacle, treasure-chamber, store-house; /arcanum/, etc.

The list of political uses is considerably shorter.

>  7. a. As a specific use of 3: The private room in which the
> confidential advisers of the sovereign or chief ministers of a country
> meet; the council-chamber. Originally in the literal sense; now taken
> chiefly for what goes on or is transacted there, i.e. political
> consultation and action, as 'the field' is taken for 'fighting,
> warlike action'.

And

> 7.b. The body of persons who meet in such a cabinet; that limited
> number of the ministers of the sovereign or head of the state who are
> in a more confidential position and have, in effect, with the head of
> the state, the determination and administration of affairs.
> [Formerly called more fully the Cabinet Council, as distinguished from
> the Privy Council, and as meeting in the cabinet; the later
> abbreviation is like the use of 'the House', 'the field', for those
> who fill or frequent it, and would be encouraged by such expressions
> as 'he is of the cabinet' used of Vane by Roe, 1630. member of the
> cabinet is later.]

7.c. is the meeting of 7.b. in particular, some combination of 7.b. and
c. has spawned the adjectival "cabinet-level" to refer to any kind of
issues, discussions or negotiations that are held either within a
cabinet or between members of the cabinets of multiple states. Another
similar distinction refers to "cabinet-level positions", identifying
specific agencies within the US government whose heads are or are not
members of the Cabinet. [cabinet-level is /not/ in OED.] For example,
the administrator [head] of the EPA is a cabinet-level position, but the
NIH or NSF chiefs are not. Another way to refer to these officials (at
least, in the US) is whether they do or do not have a "cabinet rank".
[Also not in OED.]

As a result of all these distinctions, the US Cabinet may be somewhat
distinct in that each member of the Cabinet has a prescriptive
designation. That is, the Cabinet includes the President, the Vice
President, heads of /all/ federal Departments (known as Ministers in
other countries, but Secretaries in the US, except for the head of the
Department of Justice who is the Attorney General), a small cadre of
heads of agencies or "offices" (EPA, OMB), advisers (White House Chief
of Staff, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers) and two
diplomatic positions (Trade Representative, Ambassador to the UN). The
National Security Advisor has access to the Cabinet without having a
formal cabinet rank. The distinction is actually quite clear as cabinet
rank is actually the rank order for the Presidential line of succession
(except for a small number of Members of Congress who are in line but
are not Cabinet members).

Note that Encarta definition differs drastically from OED's 7.b.:

> persons appointed by a head of state to head executive departments of
> government and act as official advisers

The OED definition is functional--it's the people who meet to determine
the economic/administrative fate of the nation. Encarta's definition is
more pragmatic and definitive--they are /appointed/. [Cambridge
Dictionary has "elected" in place of "appointed".] In the US, this is a
distinction without a difference, but it's not so for others. And it is
this split that has lead to the formation of the ironically called
"Kitchen Cabinet" in the Jackson administration (i.e., a group of
presidential advisers who were never formally appointed). More on
Kitchen Cabinet later.

Now, returning to 3., 4. and 5.a., most non-Oxford dictionaries are much
more pragmatic in their definitions.

AHD4 has "An upright, cupboardlike repository with shelves, drawers, or
compartments for the safekeeping or display of objects." Encarta
replaces "repository" with "piece of furniture".

The second AHD4 definition is "_Computer_Science_ The box that houses
the main components of a computer, such as the central processing unit,
disk drives, and expansion slots." Other references identify radio and
television rather than computers. This actually makes sense, as radio
and television cabinets used to be an integral part of home decor,
/furniture/. The same applies to kitchen cabinets and medicine
cabinets--although neither is obligated to be furniture today, as some
may be built-in into walls of dwellings. Still, there seems to be a
distinction between the "furniture" meaning and the "repository"
meaning. The former is quite independent, while the latter appears to
have been derived from 4.

Still, MWOL lists a cluster of four definitions together:

> 1. a : a case or cupboard usually having doors and shelves
> b : a collection of specimens especially of biological or numismatic
> interest
> c : console 4a
> d : a chamber having temperature and humidity controls and used
> especially for incubating biological samples

Under "console", we find:

> 4. a : a cabinet (as for a radio or television set) designed to rest
> directly on the floor

I would cautiously suggest that a. and c. are related, as are b. and d.
The former pair corresponds to the electronic housing part of OED 5.a.
while the latter is the rest of 5.a. and is directly derived from 4.

Now, returning to 3.

> A small chamber or room; a private apartment, a boudoir.

Looking at other languages, this is a fairly common contemporary
meaning. For example, in Russian, the word that is very similar in
pronunciation refers to a private study or office (or doctor's office,
in particular). Given the etymology listed for "cabinet" in most
sources, I am wondering if different meaning did not evolve from
different borrowings, e.g., some from French/Italian and others from
German (as, I suspect, the Russian word did--irrespectively of the fact
that German probably got it from French).

Just a few thoughts... I am not convinced that my linking of all these
things is absolutely correct. But I thought it worth sharing and
prompting some thought on the subject.

     VS-)

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