Curtain

How to spell curtain

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce curtain

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does curtain mean?

1. nounA piece of fabric hung to cover a window, doorway, or stage.
2. verbTo provide, screen, or shut off with hanging fabric.

Curtain in a sentence

• noun

  She drew the curtain to block out the morning sun.

• verb

  Nurses curtain off each bed for privacy during examinations.

• noun

  A heavy velvet curtain rose as the play began.

• verb

  They decided to curtain the alcove to hide the storage shelves.

Where does curtain come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the 1200s from the Old French cortine, which in turn came from the Late Latin cortina, a word used to mean a hanging cloth or screen. The earlier classical Latin cortina is curious, because it originally named a round vessel or cauldron, and only later came to describe an enclosing screen, perhaps through the idea of something that surrounds and encloses a space. Medieval church writers used cortina to render Greek references to the hanging veils of the tabernacle, which helped fix its 'draped cloth' meaning. By the time it settled into English the sense had broadened to any cloth hung to cover a window, a doorway, or a stage. The slightly odd -ain spelling preserves the French ending, which is why the word ends in '-tain' rather than the '-ten' that the pronunciation might suggest.

How the word is built

• curt- (from Late Latin cortina: enclosure, hanging cloth)
• -ain (noun ending from French -aine)