blanket

Definition

A heavy, loosely woven fabric, usually large and woollen, used for warmth while sleeping or resting.

Etymology

From Middle English blanket, blonket, blaunket, from Old Northern French blanket, blancet (“white horse", also "white woollen cloth or flannel; a type of jacket”, literally “that which is white”) (whence Modern French blanchet), diminutive of blanc (“white”), of Germanic origin (compare Old English blanca (“white horse”); see more at blank). Furthermore, the sense "white woollen cloth" is likely a calque of Old English hwītel (“blanket; cloak, mantle”), from Old English hwīt (“white”) + -el (diminutive suffix). Compare also Old Norse hvítill (“a white bed-cover, sheet”), Norwegian kvitel (“blanket”). Compare also blunket, plunket. Displaced native Middle English whytel, from Old English hwītel (whence Modern English whittle (“blanket, cloak, shawl”)).

Example Sentences

• "The baby was cold, so his mother put a blanket over him."
• "The little boys in the front bedroom had thrown off their blankets and lay under the sheets."
• "The city woke under a thick blanket of fog."

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