'Quilt' migrated from under the sleeper to on top — Latin 'culcita' (mattress) became a bedcovering.
A bed covering made of layers of fabric with padding between them, held together by lines of stitching; to make such a covering.
From Old French 'cuilte' / 'coilte' (quilt, mattress, cushion, bedcovering), from Latin 'culcita' (mattress, cushion, pillow, bolster), a word of uncertain ultimate origin. The Latin 'culcita' has no secure PIE etymology and may derive from a pre-Indo-European substrate language — possibly Etruscan or another non-IE Italic tongue. It has been tentatively connected by some scholars to a root meaning to stuff or pack, but this remains speculative. The word's semantic history shows a remarkable reversal of
The word 'counterpoint' in music and the word 'counterpane' (an old word for bedspread) are etymologically unrelated, but 'counterpane' itself has a fascinating origin: it comes from Old French 'contrepointe' (a back-stitched quilt), from Medieval Latin 'culcita puncta' (a pricked mattress — referring to the stitching pattern). The 'pane' in 'counterpane' is a corruption of 'point,' not a reference to a panel.