Mattress

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Dr. Goodword
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Mattress

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Jun 08, 2021 5:46 pm

• mattress •


Pronunciation: mæ-tris • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A fabric case filled with resilient material, usually but not necessarily fitted to a bedstead, for sleeping on. 2. A flat structure of concrete, brush and poles woven together, or other materials, protecting embankments, dams, or other structures from erosion.

Notes: Here is a common word from an uncommon source. It has only a plural, mattresses, but may be used as a verb meaning "to provide with something to sleep on" or "provide with a covering to protect from erosion".

Image

In Play: The first sense of this word is narrowly defined: "Bedbugs breed at a phenomenal rate in the seams and under the buttons on mattresses." The contents of a mattress may vary widely, and include air and water: "The post mortem revealed that Clyde had drowned when Sheila's knife cut through the mattress on his waterbed, so no charges were filed against her."

Word History: Today's Good Word was copied from Anglo-Norman French by Middle English as materas "a sleeping bag filled with soft material, tacked at short intervals to prevent the contents from slipping". Old French borrowed its word from Italian materasso, to which Italian had already reduced Medieval Latin matracium "mattress". Medieval Latin had borrowed its word in Sicily from medieval (Moorish) Arabic al-matrah "the-large cushion", literally "the thing thrown down", which was taraha "to throw" with noun prefix ma-. Provençal and Catalan turned this word into al-matrac, which became matrac after the prefix al "the" was dropped. This word came to be spelled materasso in Italian, matelas (sic) in French, Matratze in German, madrass in Swedish, and matras in Dutch. (Today's surprising if common Good Word came as a suggestion from a brand new contributor, Susan Maynard, to whom much gratitude is due.)
• The Good Dr. Goodword

David Myer
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Re: Mattress

Postby David Myer » Wed Jun 09, 2021 3:30 am

https://www.geofabrics.co/products/macc ... ses%C2%AE Not to be confused with gabions. Back in my dark civil engineering days, gabions were stackable wire baskets filled with rocks to reinforce banks and stop erosion. Mattresses were simply flat versions to serve as a base. Also used in river beds and on embankments to reduce scouring.

I wonder where 'gabion' came from?

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Slava
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Re: Mattress

Postby Slava » Wed Jun 09, 2021 6:07 am

I wonder where 'gabion' came from?

According to dictionary.com: 1570–80; <Middle French: rough, two-handled basket <Italian gabbione, augmentative of gabbia cage <Latin cavea cavity, cage

It's also pronounced [ gey-bee-uhn ], which isn't what I was going to go with at first.
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LukeJavan8
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Re: Mattress

Postby LukeJavan8 » Fri Jun 11, 2021 11:46 am

I have a creek on my property and it serves also as a
run off for rain from the streets. The bank is very unstable
in many areas. I have secured mattress springs from beds
in three places, now long buried under silt, to reinforce
the bank. The word applies to me in a very real way.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

damoge
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Re: Mattress

Postby damoge » Fri Jun 11, 2021 1:23 pm

Luke, that is WONDERFUL!
eco friendly and imaginative.
Thanks for a bright spot!
Everything works out, one way or another

LukeJavan8
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Re: Mattress

Postby LukeJavan8 » Fri Jun 11, 2021 2:03 pm

Hi Debbie:
Happy Summer and thanks :D
-----please, draw me a sheep-----


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