seller / cellar

In the June 13th One Big Happy, Ruthie’s mother says seller, but Ruthie hears cellar:

(#1)

Ruthie knows about cellars ‘basements’ (or ‘underground storage rooms’), but apparently not about bestsellers.

She might or might not know the term salt cellar / saltcellar, for a container for storing salt, like this elegant olive wood number:

(#2)

And she’s almost surely not come across a salt-seller, like this fellow in a Mali salt market:


(#3) (BBC news photo)

(Basement cellar and salt cellar are historically two different words (the cell of the second is related to Latin sal ‘salt’).

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