tapestry
pronunciation
How to pronounce tapestry in British English:
UK [ˈtæpəstri]
How to pronounce tapestry in American English:
US [ˈtæpɪstri]
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- Noun:
- something that is felt to resemble a tapestry in its complexity
- a heavy textile with a woven design; used for curtains and upholstery
- a wall hanging of heavy handwoven fabric with pictorial designs
Word Origin
- tapestry
- tapestry: [15] The ultimate source of tapestry is Greek tápēs ‘tapestry, woven carpet’. Its diminutive from tapētion was borrowed via late Latin tapētium into Old French as tapis ‘carpet’. From this was derived the verb tapisser ‘cover with a carpet’, and this in turn formed the basis of a noun tapisserie ‘carpets, woven material’. English took it over and altered it to tapestry.
- tapestry (n.)
- late 14c., tapiestre, with unetymological -t-, from Old French tapisserie "tapestry" (14c.), from tapisser "to cover with heavy fabric," from tapis "heavy fabric, carpet," from tapiz "carpet, floor covering" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *tappetium, from Byzantine Greek tapetion, from classical Greek, diminutive of tapes (genitive tapetos) "heavy fabric, carpet, rug," from an Iranian source (compare Persian taftan "to turn, twist"), from PIE *temp- "to stretch." The figurative use is first recorded 1580s.
Example
- 1. The bayeux tapestry shows the funeral procession of king edward winding to the abbey .
- 2. Since time immemorial , mankind has gazed at the static-like tapestry of the stars hovering above the horizon .
- 3. Visitors to the fair can stroll over to the metropolitan museum of art to see " tapestry in the baroque " which opens on october 23rd .
- 4. The tapestry , a tribute to the union of church , state and party , was woven by a church congregation at the behest of their priest .
- 5. The aim was to show the keep as it might have looked in the 12th century , bright-blue furniture contrasting with the deep red of an 180-foot tapestry depicting the norman conquest .