pallet

pallet pronunciation

/PAL-it/

Meaning

When company fills every real bed, somebody makes a pallet: quilts, blankets, and pillows spread on the floor or by the fireplace. Kids sleep on them at grandma's. Overnight guests do too. In rural Southern and Appalachian houses, a pallet is hospitality with no spare mattress required. Not the wooden shipping platform.

How folks use it

• “Cousins are stayin' over, so we'll make a pallet in the living room.”
• “I slept on a pallet by the stove when the upstairs got too cold.”

Origin and etymology

From French paillet, a straw mattress or bed of straw (paille means straw). Southern and South Midland English kept the word for floor bedding long after straw gave way to quilts. Dialect maps put it strong from the Chesapeake south and west through places like Tennessee and Kentucky. Bible translations that say "pick up your pallet" helped keep the word familiar.

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