couchette
English
Etymology
Borrowed from French couchette.
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -ɛt
Noun
couchette (plural couchettes)
- (rare) A couch.
- 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 48, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume II, London: Harrison and Co., […], published 1781, OCLC 316121541:
- The doctor […] desired they would have the goodness to repose themselves without ceremony, each in his respective couchette, while he and his friend Mr. Pallet would place themselves upright at the ends, that they might have the pleasure of serving those that lay along.
-
- A compartment on a passenger train having berths for sleeping.
- 1962 July, Marcus Newman, “By Car-Sleeper to Switzerland”, in Modern Railways, page 50:
- But I was disturbed to find a blot on my conception of the ultra-modern S.N.C.F.—the couchette car offered neither hot water nor, unless I looked in the wrong places, an electric razor point.
-
- A berth in such a compartment.
References
- “couchette”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
French
Etymology
couche + -ette
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Noun
couchette f (plural couchettes)
- (rail transport) sleeping berth
Descendants
- English: couchette
Further reading
- “couchette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.