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What do a Welsh dresser, a rabbit's pen and Silver Lady all have in common?

The Welsh dresser is a piece of furniture that contains cupboards and shelves for displaying plates and various chinaware or crockery. A rabbit's pen is normally a type of cage made out of wood where rabbits are kept. And lastly, Silver Lady was a hit song by David Soul, an American British actor who became world-famous in the 1970s

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The answer is... (hover mouse below)

they are called hutch in the USA, or Hutch as in Hutchinson. The latter being the simpatico police detective in the TV series Starsky & Hutch.

My real question is, I would like to know why Americans call a kitchen chest of drawers a rabbit's “home”.

Disclaimer: I have done no research. I could probably find the answer for myself, but I'm sure I can't be the only person who has ever asked themselves that question.

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    I'm American, for what it's worth, and i have never heard the phrase rabbit's home.
    – Connor Harris
    Commented Apr 4, 2017 at 15:27
  • @ConnorHarris is the question clearer now? The "answer" is in the shaded box, hover your mouse above it. Or maybe you have already, and you don't like the question. Which is fair enough.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Apr 4, 2017 at 15:37
  • @Mari-LouA ooh, sorry, I misunderstood you a bit.
    – Connor Harris
    Commented Apr 4, 2017 at 15:39
  • Actually, the Hutch is the highway that stretches from the Whitestone Bridge in Queens to a bunch of boring places up in Connecticut.
    – Ricky
    Commented Apr 4, 2017 at 16:51
  • 1
    Great, nowI have an ear worm ...lost and alone...chilled to the bone....
    – Spagirl
    Commented Apr 4, 2017 at 16:58

2 Answers 2

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It may derive from the old AmE reference to a hutch table:

Hutch:

  • A hutch is an American English word for a type of furniture.

  • The term is now usually used to describe a set of shelves or cabinets placed on top of a lower unit with a counter and either drawers or cabinets. Hutches are often seen in the form of desks, dining room, or kitchen furniture. It is frequently referred to by furniture aficionados as a hutch dresser.

  • In the 18th and early 19th century, however, the term hutch or hutch table referred to a tabletop set onto a base in such a way that when the table was not in use, the top pivoted to a vertical position and became the back of a chair or wider settee. This was a very useful form at a time when many homes had a large room used for multiple functions, because it allowed a large dining table to swing up and out of the way.

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(Wikipedia)

Hutch (n.)

  • c. 1200, "storage chest" (also applied to the biblical "ark of God"), from Old French huche "chest, trunk, coffer; coffin; ...... Sense of "cupboard for food or dishes" first recorded 1670s; that of "box-like pen for an animal" is from c. 1600

(Etymonline)

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  • A convertible table! The answer deserves a pic.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Apr 4, 2017 at 15:47
  • 1
    I've got exactly that cupboard/seat/table in my living room! Mostly people round here call it a priest's bench, but actually I found your picture online by doing a google image search for monk's bench.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 4, 2017 at 16:06
  • My mother had a dresser something like this. It had drawers below and shelves and cubbyholes on top, and the door to the top part swung down to make a shelf, possibly for putting cosmetics on.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Apr 4, 2017 at 16:06
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It is the Hoosier Cabinet.

enter image description here enter image description here The Hoosier cabinet is a complex kitchen cupboard framed broadly like the Welsh dresser you show, but often made of porcelain coated metal and outfitted with sliding doors, flour bins, slide-out cutting board, shelves and other details.

A Hoosier cabinet (also known as a "Hoosier") is a type of cupboard popular in the first decades of the 20th century. Named after the Hoosier Manufacturing Co. of New Castle, Indiana, they were also made by several other companies, most also located in Indiana. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoosier_cabinet - Wikipedia

The song Silver Lady mentions Indiana, known as the Hoosier state.

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  • Nope, the answer to my riddle is in the shaded box, but good try. Look at the links in the question. Don't delete your answer, it's interesting!
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Apr 4, 2017 at 15:42
  • An interesting aside: I've been puzzled for a while by a hot-food kiosk outside Wandworth Town Station [S.W. London] called 'CWTCH'. Puzzled, because as far as I knew [by watching 'Gavin and Stacey' on TV], 'cwtch' [kʊt͡ʃ] is Welsh for hug or cuddle. I was looking up Welsh words after a recent trip to Wales, and I see that 'cwtch' also means 'small cupboard' or 'kennel'.
    – David Garner
    Commented Apr 20, 2017 at 15:02

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