Carpet

How to spell carpet

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce carpet

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does carpet mean?

1. nounA thick woven or tufted fabric used to cover a floor or stairs.
2. verbTo cover a surface thickly, as if with a carpet.

Carpet in a sentence

• noun

  The new carpet in the hallway muffled every footstep.

• verb

  Fallen petals carpet the lawn every spring beneath the cherry tree.

• noun

  They spilled red wine on the cream carpet during dinner.

• verb

  Plans to carpet the entire upstairs landing were costed last month.

Where does carpet come from?

Language of origin: French

Carpet entered English in the 1300s from the Old French carpite and the Italian carpita, both naming a thick, plucked woollen cloth. The ultimate source is the Latin verb carpere, which literally meant 'to pluck' or 'to pull apart', the same action used when carding or teasing out wool to make a rough fabric. In its earliest English use a carpet was not something to walk on at all but a heavy cloth spread over a table or a bed for decoration; only later, by about the 1700s, did it settle into its modern meaning of a woven floor covering. The 'pluck' sense of carpere survives in surprising relatives such as 'carp' (to nag or pick at faults) and the phrase 'carpe diem' (seize, literally pluck, the day). Knowing the single plucking root helps fix the spelling: one r and one p, ending in the plain Old French suffix -et.

How the word is built

• carp- (from Latin carpere: to pluck, to card wool)
• -et (noun suffix via Old French)