cushion

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English quishin, also cushin and many other spellings,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman quissyn^[4] and Old French coissin, also cuissin and cussin, now French coussin.^[5][3][6][7] The OED distinguishes two Middle English types, quishin from coissin and cushin from cussin; the second is the one that survived in both languages.^[5] Most dictionaries trace coissin to Vulgar Latin *coxīnum, from Latin coxa (“hip, thigh”),^{[5][8][7][9][10][11]} so that it was first a cushion for the hip, like cubitāl (“elbow cushion”) from cubitus (“elbow”).^{[5][12][13][14]} Barnhart relates the Latin noun to Avestan kaša- (“shoulder”), from Proto-Indo-European *koḱsā.^[7] The history of coussin is less clear: the OED reports Hatzfeld's view that coissin was altered under the influence of coute (“quilt”), from culcita (“quilt, mattress, cushion”), and rejects as improbable a derivation that would make coissin and coussin unrelated.^[5][12] Ayto, Collins and Hoad trace the word to culcita itself, through Gallo-Romance, so that it shares its source with quilt.^[15][16][3] The French word was borrowed into Italian cuscino.^[10][4][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cushion, bolster or pillow, for sitting or kneeling on or for resting the arm: 1302–3, in an account roll, as quissin.^[2][7] The OED's first quotation is from about 1374, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English spellings were extraordinarily varied: Weekley notes that more than 400 spellings of the plural have been counted in wills and inventories,^[13][4] and Ayto that the OED records nearly seventy spellings of the word, which settled as cushion by the 17th century.^[15] The cushion became an emblem of ease and luxury (1589), the cushion on which a pulpit Bible rests (1615) and the seat of a judge or ruler (1656).^[5][9] From 1574 the word was applied to technical objects such as a lace-maker's pillow or a pincushion, later to a pad worn under the hair or a bustle (1774), the rim of a billiard table (1778) and a buffer of steam in an engine (1848).^[5] From 1813 it was used of anything resembling or acting as a cushion,^[5] and by 1860 of something that absorbs a jolt or shock.^[4] The verb, to seat or prop on a cushion, followed in 1735; it meant to suppress quietly from 1818, to furnish with cushions from 1820, and to soften the impact of something by 1863.^[5][4] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "a pillow for the seat; a soft pad placed upon a chair".^[17] In British criminal slang of 1881 to cushion was to travel by train, and American criminals called a passenger train the cushions.^[18]

Timeline

• 1302–3 – quissin, a cushion.^[2][7]
• c. 1374 – a cushion for sitting or kneeling, in Chaucer.^[5]
• 1574 – in technical uses, as a lace pillow or pincushion.^[5]
• 1589 – figuratively, an emblem of ease and luxury.^[5]
• 1656 – the seat of a judge or ruler.^[5]
• 1735 – verb, to seat or prop on a cushion.^[5]
• 1778 – the rim of a billiard table.^[5]
• 1813 – anything resembling or acting as a cushion.^[5]
• 1820 – verb, to furnish with cushions.^[5][4]
• 1863 – verb, to soften the impact of something.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bag of cloth or other material stuffed with something soft, used for sitting, kneeling or leaning on.^[16][9][5]
2. Something that pads or supports, or that absorbs a shock: a cushion of moss under the tent.^[16][5][4]
3. The elastic rim of a billiard table, from which the balls rebound.^[16][5]
4. (architecture) A capital in the shape of a bowl with the sides cut away, used in Romanesque and Byzantine building.^[16]

Verb

1. To lessen the effects of something, or to protect from harm or shock: Their savings cushioned the loss of his job.^[9][6][4]
2. To provide or fit with cushions.^[9][5]
3. To seat on or prop up with cushions.^[9][5][6]
4. To suppress something quietly by ignoring it.^[9][5]

Word family

• cushiony
• cushionless
• cushionlike
• pincushion
• air cushion
• air-cushion vehicle
• whoopee cushion

Related words

• quilt
• coxa
• cuisse

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com