counterpane

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a decorative cover spread over the top of a bed; a bedspread

   The sleeping child's breathing made the white counterpane rise and fall.

Simplified etymology

Counterpane arose in late Middle English as an alteration of counterpoint, from Old French contrepointe. That word was based on medieval Latin culcitra puncta “quilted mattress,” with puncta literally meaning “pricked.” The ending changed through association with an obsolete sense of pane meaning “cloth.”

An alteration of Middle English countrepointe, from Middle French coute pointe, literally "stitched or embroidered quilt." The spelling was reshaped because English speakers associated its parts with the familiar words counter and pane, although neither belongs to its true origin.

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External links

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