Carpet/Rug
The earliest English carpet was a tablecloth or bedspread. The word’s use for a floor covering dates from around the 1400s. Carpetis from the Latin carpere (to pluck or pull to pieces) – early carpets, especially in poor households, would have been made from old clothes. Harvest (the plucking of crops) is from the same root, as is the German Herbst (autumn).
Rug was first used in the modern sense of floor covering in the early 1800s. Earlier rugs were pieces of coarse woollen cloth and travel rugs were a necessity when travelling in winter in an unheated stagecoach. Rug is probably related to the Swedish rugg (ruffled hair) and Old Norse rogg (tuft). Rugged (originally meaning hairy, shaggy or coarsely woven) is a related word. The pile of a carpet is from the Latin pilus (hair): the earliest floor coverings were probably animal skins.
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Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
