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[[Image:Cushion.jpg|thumb|left|140px|Cushion: makes a lounge or rug softer]]
A '''cushion''' (from [[Old French]] ''coisson'', ''coussin''; from [[Latin]] ''culcita'', a quilt), is a soft bag of some ornamental material, stuffed with [[wool]], hair, [[feather]]s, [[polyester]] staple fiber, [[non-woven]] material, or even [[paper]] torn into fragments. It may be used for sitting or kneeling upon, or to soften the hardness or angularity of a [[chair]] or couch. Cushions and [[rugs]] can be used temporarily outside, to soften a hard [[ground]]. They can be placed on sunloungers and used to prevent annoyances from moist [[grass]] and biting [[insects]].
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The cushion is a very ancient article of [[furniture]]; the inventories of the contents of [[palace]]s and great houses in the early [[Middle Age]]s constantly made mention of them. Cushions were then often of great size, covered with [[leather]], and firm enough to serve as a seat, but the steady tendency of all furniture has been to grow smaller with time.
[[Image:Cushions.jpg|thumb|260px|Cushions: often found in piles]]
Cushions were, indeed, used as seats at all events in [[France]] and [[Spain]] at a very much later period, and in [[Saint-Simon]]'s time we find that in the Spanish court they were still regarded as a peculiarly honourable substitute for a chair. In France, the right to kneel upon a cushion in church behind the king was jealously guarded and strictly regulated, as we learn again from Saint-Simon. This type of cushion was called a ''carreau'', or square. When seats were rude and hard, cushions may have been a necessity; they are now one of the minor luxuries of life.
The term ''cushion'' is given in [[architecture]] to the sides of the [[Ionic order|Ionic capital]]. It is also applied to an early and simple form of the [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] capitals of [[Germany]] and [[England]], which consist of cubical masses, square at the top and rounded off at the four corners, so as to reduce the lower diameter to a circle of the same size as the shaft.
== See also ==
{{Wiktionarypar|cushion}}
* [[Pillow]]
[[Category:Bedding]]
[[Category:Furnishings]]
[[Category:Interior design]]
[[de:Kissen]]
[[eo:Kuseno]]
[[fr:Coussin]]
[[fi:Tyyny]]
[[sv:Kudde]]
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