larder
/ˈlɑːdə
/noun
A room or large cupboard for storing food.Before the days of refrigerators, when fresh food was stored in larders, Limax species were often encountered congregating around the rim of a milk jug or slithering over the Sunday joint of beef on the larder shelf....
- She stored food in a walk-in larder, which was a heck of a lot colder than the fridge.
- On the ground floor there four reception rooms, a kitchen with fitted units, a separate utility room and two larders with traditional stone shelves.
Synonyms
pantry, storage room, storeroom, store, food store, cupboard;
cooler, scullery;
British buttery, still room, butlery
archaic spence
Origin
Middle English (denoting a store of meat): from Old French lardier, from medieval Latin lardarium, from laridum (see lard).
In the past, and in many peasant societies, the pig has been a vital source of food for the winter: it can be salted and preserved, and traditionally you can eat every part of it except its squeak. This is reflected in the word larder, which in origin is a place for storing bacon. It comes from the French word meaning ‘bacon’ that also gave us lard (Middle English), and the lardon (Late Middle English), a cube or chunk of bacon.