A chifforobe (), also chiffarobe or chifferobe, is a closet-like piece of furniture that combines a long space for hanging clothes (that is, a

wardrobe A wardrobe or armoire or almirah is a standing closet used for storing clothes. The earliest wardrobe was a chest, and it was not until some degree of luxury was attained in regal palaces and the castles of powerful nobles that separate acco ...

armoire A wardrobe or armoire or almirah is a standing closet used for storing clothes. The earliest wardrobe was a chest, and it was not until some degree of luxury was attained in regal palaces and the castles of powerful nobles that separate accommo ...

) with a

chest of drawers A chest of drawers, also called (especially in North American English) a dresser or a bureau, is a type of cabinet (a piece of furniture) that has multiple parallel, horizontal drawers generally stacked one above another. In American English a ...

. Typically the wardrobe section runs down one side of the piece, while the drawers occupy the other side. It may have two enclosing doors or have the drawer fronts exposed and a separate door for the hanging space. Chifforobes were first advertised in the 1908

Sears, Roebuck Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

Catalogue, which described them as "a modern invention, having been in use only a short time." The term itself is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordschiffonier The term chiffonier, also chiffonnier, may refer to one of at least two types of furniture. Its name comes directly from a French piece of furniture, the ''chiffonier''. The French name, which comes from the French for a rag-picker, suggests tha ...

'' and ''wardrobe''. The word is used in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, primarily in the southern portion of the country, in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

, and in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. Its use has been attested as far apart as

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

and

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the ...

.Walter J. Brown, ''J.J. Brown and Thomas E. Watson: Georgia politics, 1912-1928'', p. 24 (Mercer University Press, 1989) . Found a
Google Books
Accessed July 7, 2011. In those references, it was used as a

water closet A flush toilet (also known as a flushing toilet, water closet (WC) – see also toilet names) is a toilet that disposes of human waste (principally urine and feces) by using the force of water to ''flush'' it through a drainpipe to another lo ...

or potty (or more accurately a

commode A commode is any of many pieces of furniture. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has multiple meanings of "commode". The first relevant definition reads: "A piece of furniture with drawers and shelves; in the bedroom, a sort of elaborate chest ...

). The word has been used in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, but is not as common as its synonyms such as '' bureau'' or '' dresser''.Elmer Bagby Atwood, ''The regional vocabulary of Texas'', p. 44 (University of Texas Press, 1962) . Found a
Google Books
Accessed July 7, 2011.

In media

* In the 1952

Flannery O'Connor Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often ...

novel '' Wise Blood'', Hazel Motes leaves a note on his mother's abandoned "chifforobe" warning thieves will be found and killed. * "Chiffarobe" appears eleven times in the 1960

Harper Lee Nelle Harper Lee (April 28, 1926February 19, 2016) was an American novelist best known for her 1960 novel ''To Kill a Mockingbird''. It won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. Lee has received numer ...

novel ''

To Kill a Mockingbird ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and was instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' has become ...

''. For instance, Tom Robinson "busts up a chiffarobe" for Mayella Ewell. * In the 1982

Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awa ...

novel '' The Color Purple'', the character Celie describes that patting Harpo feels "like patting another piece of wood. Not a living tree, but a table, a chifferobe." Later in the book, Celie is not happy about the way she looks, and in that context she contemplates: "Nothing but churchgoing clothes in my chifferobe." * In the 1988

Thomas Harris William Thomas Harris III (born 1940/1941) is an American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter. The majority of his works have been adapted into films and television, the most nota ...

novel '' Silence of the Lambs'', chapter twelve,

Clarice Starling Clarice M. Starling is a fictional character and protagonist of the novels '' The Silence of the Lambs'' (1988) and ''Hannibal'' (1999) by Thomas Harris. In the 1991 film adaptation of ''The Silence of the Lambs'', she was played by Jodie Fos ...

analyses the police deputies at a funeral home in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...

and knows that "...they came from houses that had chifforobes instead of closets and she knew pretty much what was in the chifforobes. She knew that these men had relatives who hung their clothes in suitbags on the walls of their trailers." * Judith Ortiz Cofer recalled a "monstrous chifforobe" from her youth in

.Judith Ortiz Cofer, ''Silent dancing: a partial remembrance of a Puerto Rican childhood'', p. 24 (Edition 2, Arte Publico Press, 1990) . Found a
Google Books
Accessed July 7, 2011. *

Dorothy Allison Dorothy Allison (born April 11, 1949) is an American writer from South Carolina whose writing focuses on class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism and lesbianism. She is a self-identified lesbian femme. Allison has won a number of a ...

uses the term repeatedly in her 1992 novel '' Bastard Out of Carolina''. * The 1999 ''

King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It aired its original non-syndicated run from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, and centers on the Hills, an ...

'' episode "A Beer Can Named Desire" depicts character Gilbert Fontaine De la Tour D'Haute Rive using the term chifforobe. However, the piece of furniture he uses is depicted as a wardrobe, as it lacks drawers. * In the 2009 ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their ...

'' episode "Brian's Got a Brand New Bag", after breaking up with him, Brian's 50 year old girlfriend Rita tells him to leave her apartment key on various pieces of furniture using terms unfamiliar to him, including a davenport, a chesterfield, a

divan A divan or diwan ( fa, دیوان, ''dīvān''; from Sumerian ''dub'', clay tablet) was a high government ministry in various Islamic states, or its chief official (see '' dewan''). Etymology The word, recorded in English since 1586, meanin ...

, and a chifforobe. All but the chifforobe refer to different types of sofas/couches.

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline, Chifforobes Cabinets (furniture) Clothing containers