closet [LME] Although closet is now the usual word in American English for a *cupboard or wardrobe, it originally referred to a small private room, such as one for study or prayer. This idea of privacy led to the sense of hiding a fact or keeping something secret, which goes right back to the beginning of the 17th century. A person who is hiding the fact that they are gay has been described as in the closet, or as a closet homosexual, since the late 1960s. To out someone, meaning to reveal that they are gay, is a shortened way of saying ‘to force them out of the closet’. Closet comes from close [ME], which both in the sense ‘near’ and ‘shut’ go back to Latin claudere ‘to shut’, also the source of recluse [ME], someone who shuts themselves away.