Today’s Pearls Before Swine, with a very silly pun:
Ottoman the piece of furniture takes us back to the Ottoman Empire:
An ottoman is a piece of furniture consisting of a padded, upholstered seat or bench, usually having neither a back nor arms, often used as a stool or footstool, or in some cases as a coffee table. Ottomans are often sold as coordinating furniture with armchairs or gliders.
An ottoman can also be known as a footstool, tuffet, hassock, or pouffe. Some ottomans are hollow and used for storage.
… The ottoman was brought to Europe from Turkey in the late 18th century. The word ottomane to refer to furniture appeared by at least 1729 in French. The first known recorded use in English occurs in one of Thomas Jefferson’s memorandum books from 1789: “P[ai]d. for an Ottomane of velours d’Utrecht.” In Turkey, an ottoman was the central piece of family seating, and was piled with cushions. In Europe, the ottoman was first designed as a piece of fitted furniture that wrapped around three walls of a room. The ottoman evolved into a smaller version that fit into the corner of a room. (link)
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