Cushion 172098 221839705 2008-06-26T09:40:19Z 86.82.249.111 [[Image:Tapestry cushion.JPG|thumb|left|240px|Cushion: makes a lounge or rug softer]] A '''cushion''' (from [[Old French]] ''coisson'', ''coussin''; from [[Latin]] ''culcita'', a quilt), is a soft bag of some ornamental material, stuffed with [[wool]], hair, [[feather]]s, [[polyester]] staple fiber, [[non-woven]] material, or even [[paper]] torn into fragments. It may be used for sitting or kneeling upon, or to soften the hardness or angularity of a [[chair]] or couch. Cushions and [[rugs]] can be used temporarily outside, to soften a hard [[ground]]. They can be placed on sunloungers and used to prevent annoyances from moist [[grass]] and biting [[insects]]. Some dialects of English use this word to refer to [[throw pillow]]s as well. The cushion is a very ancient article of [[furniture]]; the inventories of the contents of [[palace]]s and great houses in the early [[Middle Age]]s constantly made mention of them. Cushions were then often of great size, covered with [[leather]], and firm enough to serve as a seat, but the steady tendency of all furniture has been to grow smaller with time. [[Image:Cushions.jpg|thumb|260px|Cushions: often found in piles]] Cushions were, indeed, used as seats at all events in [[France]] and [[Spain]] at a very much later period, and in [[Saint-Simon]]'s time we find that in the Spanish court they were still regarded as a peculiarly honourable substitute for a chair. In France, the right to kneel upon a cushion in church behind the king was jealously guarded and strictly regulated, as we learn again from Saint-Simon. This type of cushion was called a ''carreau'', or squaer. When seats were rude and hard, cushions may have been a necessity; they are now one of the minor luxuries of life. The term ''cushion'' is given in [[architecture]] to the sides of the [[Ionic order|Ionic capital]]. It is also applied to an early and simple form of the [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] capitals of [[Germany]] and [[England]], which consist of cubical masses, square at the top and rounded off at the four corners, so as to reduce the lower diameter to a circle of the same size as the shaft. == See also == {{Wiktionary|cushion}} * [[Pillow]] * [[Cushioning]] [[Category:Bedding]] [[Category:Furnishings]] [[Category:Interior design]] [[de:Kissen]] [[eo:Kuseno]] [[fr:Coussin]] [[fi:Tyyny]] [[pt:Almofada]] [[sv:Kudde]] [[nl:Kussen]]