carpita

Medieval Latin carpita derived from carpere — to pluck or card fibers, to comb wool. The carpita was a plucked or heavy cloth. The word traveled through Old French and into English around 1300, initially naming any thick covering fabric — not necessarily floor covering. Medieval carpets were used on tables, on walls, and on benches before they were placed on floors; the term 'table carpet' appears in inventories before 'floor carpet.'

Oriental carpets — from Persia, Turkey, and Central Asia — reached Europe through Crusader contacts and the trade routes that followed. The Pazyryk carpet, found in a Siberian burial mound and dated to the 5th century BCE, is the oldest surviving knotted pile carpet; it shows elaborate animal motifs that anticipate the classical Persian tradition. Venetian merchants trading with the Levant brought oriental carpets to Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries.

The Flemish and English carpet industry developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, producing pile carpets domestically. Axminster in Devon became famous for carpet weaving from 1755; the 'Axminster carpet' became a generic term for tufted pile carpets. The Jacquard loom, invented in 1804, allowed complex pattern weaving and made carpet production partly mechanical.

Today 'carpet' has acquired both domestic and metaphorical lives. To 'carpet' someone is to reprimand them — from being summoned to stand on the carpet before one's superior. 'Red carpet' treatment describes ceremonial welcome. 'Under the carpet' means concealed. The medieval plucked cloth now covers floors, ceremonies, and scandals.