Word Origin Atlas

Exact historical dictionary sense

Cell in Webster's 1913 dictionary

The 1913 record labels cell as noun. Its source-bounded etymology and selected historical definition appear below.

WEBSTER 1913noun
Cell

[OF. celle, fr. L. cella; akin to celare to hide, and E. hell, helm, conceal. Cf. Hall.]

Cross-verified historical sense
The source text may be outdated. The page preserves that historical boundary.
Cross-verified 1913 record
Headwordcell
Part of speechnoun
Historical etymology[OF. celle, fr. L. cella; akin to celare to hide, and E. hell, helm, conceal. Cf. Hall.]
Selected historical definitionA very small and close apartment, as in a prison or in a monastery or convent; the hut of a hermit.
Signed record IDwebster1913-cell-noun-dd8125c90223
Source locatorCIDE.C, paragraph 4196; Gutenberg eBook 661
Edition-scoped answerNot earliest-attestation proofNot modern consensus
Independent historical textProject Gutenberg section 661Signed structural record sourceGNU GCIDE 0.54 archive
Quick answer

In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), "cell" is labeled noun. Its etymology is recorded as: "[OF. celle, fr. L. cella; akin to celare to hide, and E. hell, helm, conceal. Cf. Hall.]" The selected historical definition says: "A very small and close apartment, as in a prison or in a monastery or convent; the hut of a hermit."

Project Gutenberg Webster 1913 plus signed GNU GCIDE 0.54 Exact cross-verified historical record reviewed 2026-10-04

What this answer proves

One named sense in one historical dictionary edition.

The answer reports the selected headword, part of speech, etymology, definition, and source locator as transcribed in the cross-verified 1913 record.

Evidence boundaryIt does not establish the earliest attestation or a complete borrowing chain.It does not claim current scholarly consensus or a modern dictionary definition.Historical dictionary text may be obsolete, incomplete, inaccurate, or offensive by modern standards.

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