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mattress

MA-triss · noun

ArabicOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

Origin

English mattress comes from Middle English materas, from Old French matras, which borrowed Arabic مَطْرَح (maṭraḥ), meaning 'place where something is thrown,' itself from the verb طَرَحَ (ṭaraḥa), 'to throw.'

Journey

The word traveled from Arabic into Old French and then into Middle English, narrowing along the way from a general 'place thrown down' to the specific padded surface we sleep on.

Related words

It's worth comparing to divan, another word for bedding-related furniture that entered English from the Middle East (via Persian and Turkish) rather than through native European tradition, since floor-padding for sleep was a foreign custom to Europeans.

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From Arabic

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