The Carpet Chronicles: Spinning a Yarn About Carpet Catchphrases

Ever wonder about the origins of phrases that don’t have an obvious meaning?  Phrases like rule of thumb, the cat’s out of the bag, spill the beans, or sleep tight?  

We all know what they mean, and we use them casually as part of everyday life, but the actual words don’t convey the meanings. We all just know what they mean. We find that curious.  

Did you ever consider how many of these phrases refer to carpet?  There are more than you’d think.

Welcome to the “Carpet Chronicles,” where we’ll whimsically examine the etymology of some common carpet expressions and catchphrases. But first, a brief history of “carpet.”

The word “carpet” first appeared in English as a reference to floorcoverings in the 15th century, and this has been its primary meaning since the 18th century. Prior to that, carpet referred to a variety of items, such as coverings for beds, couches, tables, and even walls. 

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, carpet was often used as an adjective that contained an implicit reference to luxury and wealth. This was accompanied by a tinge of contempt when used as a descriptor, as in “carpet-knight,” of a man who has seen no military service in the field, and “carpet-monger,” a lover of ease and pleasure. 

Carpet’s deeper origins can be traced back to the 13th and 14th centuries in the Old Italian “carpita,” meaning a thick woolen cloth, and the Old French “carpite,” meaning a heavily decorated cloth.  The word's true origin is most likely from the Latin “carpere,” meaning to card or pluck.  Does anyone remember the industry’s old carding machines from back in the day?

The modern use of the word carpet has been rolled into many a common phrase that we casually throw around like an area rug (or “rogg,” the Old Norse word for “shaggy tuft”).  In this first installment of the Carpet Chronicles, we’ll look at a few of the most common phrases that refer to carpet, our industry’s ubiquitously trod upon and beloved product.

Magic CARPET Ride

Aladdin, anyone?  Long before the “magic carpet ride” was made famous by Disney in the modern day, this phrase was well-known and widely used for centuries.  Its origin harkens back to tales from One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern folktales known in the West as the Arabian Nights from its first English translation title in the early 1700s.   In these tales, it was not uncommon for enchanting carpets to whisk the characters away on fantastical adventures.  

And of course, the rock band Steppenwolf got into the act in 1968 with their #1 song “Magic Carpet Ride which helped install the phrase in the cultural lexicon.  You don’t know what we can find…  

Cut a RUG: 

Hearing the word carpet in music from Steppenwolf might even inspire some of us to get up and “cut a rug.”  This phrase is now commonly known to refer to dancing, but originally it didn’t refer to just any old dancing.  

The phrase originated in the 1920s in the height of the Jazz Age, when people would gather in dance halls like the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem to hear big bands led by jazz greats such as Chick Webb or Count Basie play a raucous new kind of music, and really dance.  The jazz music of that era inspired a nationwide dance craze that inspired dances like the Charleston, the Jitterbug, and the Lindy Hop.  If you were really good at it, if your footwork was fast and precise and you danced with obvious joy and passion, the floor had better watch out.  You could really cut a rug!

Rolling out the Red CARPET

If you could really cut a rug back in the day, they might just “roll out the red carpet” for you when you came around.  The “red carpet treatment” has become a widely known practice of welcoming important figures with special hospitality, but its origins go way back.  

In the ancient Greek play Agamemnon, written in 458 BC by Aeschylus, the title character’s wife Clytemnestra welcomes him home from Troy by having crimson tapestries of silk placed beneath the steps of his chariot.  Then she murders him.  Fortunately for our industry, only the red carpet part of that story caught on.

The first relatively modern use of the red carpet was to welcome James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, as he stepped off a riverboat in South Carolina in 1821.  By the early 1900s, railroads used red carpets to usher first-class ticket holders along the platform to their railcars.  And of course, the red carpet has been used as the entryway flooring of choice for film premieres and awards ceremonies for almost a century now.  

At this point it’s so deeply entrenched in our culture that it’s safe to say the red carpet treatment isn’t going anywhere.

Well, there you have it – a first look at some commonly used phrases involving carpet.  We hope you enjoyed learning about their origins and how far back the carpet rolls (sorry).  We look forward to sharing more of these with you in future posts.