duvet

Etymology

It is borrowed from French duvet (“down”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} earlier dumet, a diminutive of Old French dum (“down”).^[2][3][4][7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes the French word as a Middle French alteration of an assumed earlier form, later recorded in Middle French and in Breton dumed, and the Old French word as an alteration, probably influenced by plume (“feather”), of dun,^[5] which the American Heritage Dictionary and Dictionary.com derive from Old Norse dúnn (“down”).^[4][5][8] Kroonen explains the Norse word as a Nordic one that was also borrowed into West Germanic, where it gave German Daune and the English word down, the soft feathers.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A quilt stuffed with eiderdown or swan's-down: 1759, in Samuel Johnson's Idler,^[2] the date that Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives too;^[5] Etymonline gives 1758.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Collins gives continental quilt as another name for it,^[7] and the Shorter Oxford describes it as a thick soft quilt used instead of other bedclothes.^[10] The Oxford dictionaries label it chiefly British,^[6][11] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged defines it by comforter.^[5] From 1934, in Webster's dictionary, the word was also used of a downy growth, as on some fungus cultures.^[2][5] Modern uses include the duvet jacket, a down-filled jacket worn by mountaineers,^[7][6] and the colloquial duvet day, an extra day off work taken with the employer's consent.^[10]

Timeline

• 1759 – a quilt stuffed with eiderdown or swan's-down.^[2][5]
• 1934 – a downy growth.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thick soft quilt filled with down, feathers or a synthetic fibre, used on a bed instead of a top sheet and blankets; a comforter: She shook out the duvet and opened the window.^{[6][7][10][5]}
2. A down-filled jacket worn especially by mountaineers; also called a duvet jacket.^[7][6]
3. A downy growth, as on some fungus cultures.^[5][2]

Related words

• down
• eiderdown

Usage notes

The word is chiefly British;^[6][11] Collins gives continental quilt as another name,^[7] and in American English the usual word is comforter.^[5][1]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press