coverlet

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English coverlite, later also coverlet and keverlet,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman coverlit (“bedspread”),^[4][5][6][2] recorded from the first third of the 13th century,^[4] although the OED finds examples only in the 14th century and notes that they may come from English.^[3] The Anglo-Norman word is made of the present stem of Old French covrir (“to cover”), the source of cover, and lit (“bed”),^[6][7][8][9] from Latin lectus.^[5][9][10] The OED and Etymonline treat the source as an unrecorded *covre-lit,^[3][11] and Weekley compares the formation of curfew and kerchief.^[12] Etymonline also allows that it may be a diminutive of the related noun.^[11] The ending was soon misunderstood: according to Merriam-Webster, the spelling with -let comes by folk etymology from that Middle English suffix,^[9] and the Middle English Dictionary explains coverlid from lid and coverlect from the Latin noun.^[2] The modern French word couvre-lit is a late formation, perhaps suggested in part by the English word.^[3][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A covering for a bed: about 1300 in Etymonline,^[11] and in the forms cuverlys and cuverlyt in an executors' account in Latin of 1303.^[2] The OED's first English quotation, couerlyte, is from the early Wycliffite Bible of 1382, where the Middle English Dictionary dates it before 1382.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

At first any covering for a bed, it later came to mean specifically the outer one,^[11] which is how Johnson (1755) defined it: "the outermost of the bedcloaths".^[13] Since 1551, in Matthew's Bible, it has also meant a covering of any kind, and since 1628, in Felltham's Resolves, it has been used figuratively.^[3] Merriam-Webster labels the sense "cover" as archaic.^[9] The word has also kept a variant form, coverlid, in use beside it.^[6][12]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a covering for a bed.^[11]
• 1303 – cuverlyt, in an executors' account in Latin.^[2]
• 1382 – couerlyte, in the early Wycliffite Bible.^[3][2]
• 1551 – any kind of covering.^[3]
• 1628 – figurative, a covering.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An outer covering for a bed; a bedspread or quilt: She folded back the patchwork coverlet.^[14][9][3]
2. (archaic) A covering of any kind.^[9][3][6]

Related words

• cover
• curfew
• kerchief
• coverlid

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins