[F. chalet (not châlet, as often in English books) a Swiss word (in la Gruyère pronounced tsalet), supposed to have been introduced into Fr. by Rousseau (Littré suppl.). Perh. a dim. of casella, cassella, a little cottage, cot (Du Cange), itself dim. of casa house (or of its Romanic representative); less probably, as concerns the sense, = It. cataletto, F. châlit wooden bedstead. (Littré’s suggestion of identity with castelletum, châtelet is phonetically untenable, because st becomes in la Gruyère ç, as chastel, tsaçī.)]
1. A hut or cabin on the Swiss mountains, where cattle are lodged in the summer, and where cheese is made; hence, the small wooden house or cottage of the Swiss peasant; gen. a house or villa built in the style of a Swiss cottage.
1817. Byron, Manfred, I. ii. 121. The Chalet will be gain’d within an hour.
1818. Blackw. Mag., IV. 88. There are many chalets in very lofty situations.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 2. 12. On the slopes were innumerable châlets, glistening in the sunbeams.
1878. Lady Herbert, trans. Hübner’s Ramble, I. xi. 171. A poor little hut or châlet inhabited by a planter and his family.
2. = F. chalet de nécessité, a street lavatory, urinal, etc. (In Paris these are elegant structures.)
1882. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Oct., 3/2. A protest against the proposed erection of the chalets at Ludgate-circus.
1884. Daily News, 17 Dec., 2/3. (Commissioners of Sewers, Londor.) A large deputation of ratepayers from Ludgate-circus … the petitioners suggesting that the chalets should be placed underground, as … at the Royal Exchange.
