Etymograph

English

pillow

Pillow comes from Middle English pilwe ‘a soft stuffed bag’, from Latin pulvīnus ‘cushion’, and ultimately from pulvis ‘dust’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpulvis‘dust’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEpulvīnus‘cushion’
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pulwīreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150pyle
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pilwe‘a soft stuffed bag’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1834pillow

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpulvis‘dust’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEpulvīnus‘cushion’
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pulwīreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150pyle
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pilwe‘a soft stuffed bag’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1834pillow

Earliest quotation: 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, London: Richard Bentley: “...but Lucy was too thoroughly exhausted to awaken. There…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *pel- ‘flour, dust’

felt, simple, simply, film, push, complain, fold, pulse, filter, repeal, flaw, palate, compulsive, expel, pollen, repel, palpable, propel, palatable, palladium, pelt, polemic, pall, peloton, tuple, palatal, muffle, pollinate, apoplexy, peplum, palp, wallow, interpolate, pillion, 63 more

through Latin pulvis ‘dust’

powder, pulver, 10 more

Today it means

noun A soft cushion used to support the head in bed.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin pulvis / pillow

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