cushion

Cushion comes from Middle English quysshyn, borrowed from Old French coissin, which traces back to Vulgar Latin *coxīnus, meaning 'seat pad.' That word was built on Latin coxa, 'hip, thigh,' and may have taken its ending from pulvīnus, 'pillow.'

The word began as a term rooted in the body part it supported — the hip — and settled into English as the padded object itself, with its bodily origin fading from view.

Its root, Latin coxa ('hip, thigh'), traces back to the Proto-Indo-European *koḱs-, meaning 'joint, limb,' linking cushion to an ancient family of words about the body's moving parts.