Cellar vs. Seller

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Grammarist

Cellar and seller are two words that are pronounced the same way but are spelled differently and have different meanings. They are homophones. We will examine the definitions of cellar and seller, where these words come from and some examples of their use in sentences.

A cellar is a room or a floor built beneath the ground floor of a building, a cellar is a basement. Cellar may also be used to mean the place where wine is stored or the inventory of wine. The word cellar first appears in the 1200s, derived from the Latin word cellarium which means a storeroom, a pantry.

A seller is someone who peddles good or services. Seller is also used to describe an item that is sold in a particular fashion, such as best seller. The word seller also first appeared in the 1200s, derived from the Old English word sellan which means to supply, to deliver, to give and the suffix -er which means a person who performs a specific action.

Examples

In a leaked internal memo sent out to all 28 franchise stores earlier this month, Craft Beer Cellar founders Suzanne Schalow and Kate Baker put out a list of brands required to go on CBC shelves, as well as a list of breweries whose offerings were “not fit for consumption.” The beer store operates locations in 13 states. (The Boston Business Journal)

The Indian ecommerce industry is making a deep impact on the buying behaviour of consumers across the country by roping in lots of selders. (The Deccan Herald)

“When Breath Becomes Air,” a memoir by neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi, just placed second among Amazon’s print and Kindle best sellers of 2016, after “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2, Special Edition Rehearsal Script.” (The Wall Street Journal)

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