Where does “carpet” come from?
Carpet comes from Old French carpite, from Italian carpita, from Latin carpere meaning to pluck or card fibers, from Proto-Indo-European (s)ker-.
carpet (English): A fabric used as a complete floor covering; Any...
Definitions
- A fabric used as a complete floor covering; Any...
Ancestry of “carpet”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | carpette | A fabric cover for beds or furniture; a tablecloth or throw |
| 2 | Old French | carpite | — |
| 3 | Medieval Latin | carpita | — |
| 4 | Latin | carpere | second-person singular future passive indicative... |
| 5 | Latin | carpo | I pluck, pick, harvest; I tear off, tear out,... |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | karpō | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | kerp- | to pluck, harvest |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | (s)ḱer- | dung, manure, filth; manure, dung, filth |