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{{Short description|Type of bedding}}
{{About||the goldsmith and engraver|Jean Duvet|the song by Bôa|Duvet (Bôa song)}}
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{{More citations needed|date=April 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
[[File:La cama deshecha (2724466831).jpg|thumb|A bed with a duvet]]

A '''duvet''' ({{IPAc-en|UK|ˈ|d|uː|v|eɪ}} {{respelling|DOO|vay}}, {{IPAc-en|US|d|uː|ˈ|v|eɪ}} {{respelling|doo|VAY}};<ref>{{cite EPD|18}}</ref><ref>{{cite LPD|3}}</ref> {{etymology|fr|{{Wikt-lang|fr|duvet}} ''{{IPA|fr|dyvɛ||LL-Q150 (fra)-LoquaxFR-duvet.wav}}''<nowiki />|down}}), usually called a '''comforter''' or (''down-filled'') '''quilt''' in American English,<ref>{{cite Merriam-Webster|duvet |access-date=2022-02-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://infoplease.com/dictionary/duvet |title=duvet: Meaning and Definition of |publisher=Infoplease |access-date=2022-02-15}}</ref><ref name="duvets-v-eiderdowns">{{cite web |url=https://theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2016/jan/05/duvets-v-eiderdowns-the-royal-household-takes-it-to-the-mattresses |title=Duvets v eiderdowns – the royal household takes it to the mattresses |date=5 January 2016 |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=2022-02-15}}</ref> and a '''doona''' in [[Australian English]],<ref>{{cite OED|Doona, n.|242445 |access-date=2022-04-29}}</ref> is a type of [[bedding]] consisting of a soft flat bag filled with [[down feather|down]], [[feather]]s, [[wool]], [[cotton]], [[silk]], or a synthetic alternative, and is typically protected with a removable [[duvet cover|cover]], similar to a [[pillow]] and pillow case. Sleepers often use a duvet without a top [[bed sheet]], as the duvet cover can readily be removed and laundered as often as the bottom sheet.

The term ''duvet'' is mainly British,<ref>{{cite Lexico|duvet |access-date=2022-02-15}} {{Cite web |url=https://www.lexico.com/definition/duvet |title=Archived copy |access-date=January 22, 2022 |archive-date=January 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122140105/https://www.lexico.com/definition/duvet |url-status=dead }}.</ref> especially in reference to the bedding.  The term is rare in US English, where it typically refers to the cover, not the bedding itself.

Duvets originated in rural Europe and were filled with the down feathers of ducks or geese. The best quality feathers are taken from the [[Eider|eider duck]], whose feathers are known for their effectiveness as a [[Thermal insulation|thermal insulator]].

In Britain, prior to the 1970s, a similar form of bedding was called an '''eiderdown'''. The British eiderdown was thinner than its continental equivalent. It was placed atop a sheet and blankets, for extra warmth, rather than being used instead of a sheet and blankets.

== Name ==
The word ''duvet'' is of [[French language|French]] origin, meaning "down". Its first known mention in [[English language|English]] came in 1759, when [[Samuel Johnson]] used it in one of ''[[The Idler (1758–1760)|The Idler]]'' series of essays.<ref name="bbc_300">{{cite news|date=2015-12-25|title=Almost 300 years without a duvet|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34848546|access-date=2021-01-28}}</ref> Duvets are often more commonly known by other names outside of Europe.

=== Australia and Europe ===

[[File:KimptonsDoonaAd.jpg|thumb|1974 Kimptons doona advertisement in the Canberra Times]]
Originally called a ''continental quilt'', duvets are commonly referred to in [[Australia]] by the [[generic trademark]] ''doona''. The Doona brand of duvets were originally manufactured by the [[Melbourne]]-based textile company Kimptons and became popular in the 1970s,<ref name="AFR1993">{{cite news |last=Thomas |first= Tony |title= 'MR DOONA' WAKES TO ELECTRONICS |work=[[Australian Financial Review]]|url=https://www.afr.com/companies/mr-doona-wakes-to-electronics-19930129-kaqk8 |url-status=live |access-date=10 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220110124557/https://www.afr.com/companies/mr-doona-wakes-to-electronics-19930129-kaqk8 |archive-date=10 January 2022}}</ref> with the [[brandname]] eventually becoming a generic term in [[Australian English]].<ref name="CambridgeAusDictionary">{{cite web | url = https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/doona | title = Meaning of Doona in English | format = web page | publisher = [[Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary|Cambridge Dictionary]] | access-date = 10 January 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220110132121/https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/doona |archive-date = 10 January 2022}}</ref> After a series of [[mergers and acquisitions]], [[Tontine Group]] has held the Doona trademark since 1991.<ref name="PacDunHist">{{cite web | url = http://www.ansell.com/company/history.pdf | title = History of Pacific Dunlop Ltd | publisher = [[Ansell]] | access-date = 2006-12-08 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060810031448/http://www.ansell.com/company/history.pdf <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2006-08-10}}</ref><ref name="TontineHistory">{{cite web | url = https://www.tontine.com.au/pages/the-tontine-story | title = THE TONTINE STORY | format = web page | publisher = [[Tontine Group]] | access-date = 10 January 2022 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220110130701/https://www.tontine.com.au/pages/the-tontine-story |archive-date = 10 January 2022}}</ref> Kimptons' adoption of the term "doona" is generally held to be from the [[Danish language|Danish]] "dyne" (pronounced du-neh), meaning eiderdown, originally from the [[Old Norse|Norse]] "dýna".<ref>{{cite web | url = https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=dyne | title = dyne | format = web page | publisher = ordnet.dk | access-date = 25 September 2023}}</ref> The word occurs in similar form also in [[Swedish language|Swedish]] and [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]; elsewhere other variants are also found such as "dunyha" in [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]<ref>{{cite book
|title=Hungarian-English dictionary |year=2006 |first=István |last=Kiséry |publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó |location= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IFXnV7o8bucC|page=103 |isbn=9789630583589 |edition= }}</ref> and also, with the same meaning, in [[Romani language|Romani or Romany]], the language of the travelling [[Romani people]] of Europe.<ref>[[Jan Yoors]], who travelled with the European Romani as a boy before the [[Second World War]], writes in his 1967 memoir "The Gypsies": "[as a 12-year old, in 1934] I gratefully accepted Nanosh's invitation to share his sleeping stead, together with his many brothers, between two enormous eiderdowns ... Suddenly a little Gypsy boy at the other end of our ''dunha'' (eiderdown) turned around with a pull ... [when] I awoke late in the morning ... most ''dunhas'' had been removed and stacked away inside the wagons." (Yoors, "The Gypsies", pp. 17-19).</ref>

=== Asia ===
In South Asian countries like India and Pakistan, duvets are known as "ralli quilts" or [[razai]].

=== Americas ===
In American English, a duvet may be called a ''comforter''; however, [[comforter]] is generally used to refer to a slightly different type of bedding that is not as thick, does not have a cover, and is often used over a top sheet.

==History==
During the [[Migration Period|early middle ages]],  duvets of eider (duck) down were used by people on the northern coast of Norway. The down from eider has been used for duvets, at least for a thousand years.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}.<ref>{{Cite web |title= The excavation of the Oseberg ship - Museum of the Viking Age|url=https://www.vikingtidsmuseet.no/english/research/gjellestad-ship/oseberg-ship/}}</ref> The [[Oseberg Ship|Oseberg viking ship]]  AD 820 contained, amongst the deposits, [https://www.vikingtidsmuseet.no/english/research/gjellestad-ship/oseberg-ship/ down duvets]. In the 15th century, [[featherbed]]s (mattresses) were used by rich monarchs in continental Europe and in England, though not by their courtiers.<ref name="O&I">{{cite web |title=Straw mattresses, chaff beds, palliasses, ticks stuffed with leaves |url=http://www.oldandinteresting.com/straw-mattresses.aspx |website=Oldandinteresting.com |date=9 January 2008}}</ref> From the 16th century, wealthy people all over continental Europe began buying and using feather duvets.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Feather duvets came late to England. [[Samuel Pepys]] slept under one on 9 September 1665 while visiting his friend Captain George Cocke,<ref>"...to bed; where, though I lay the softest I ever did in my life, with a downe bed, after the Danish manner, upon me...". Diary of Samuel Pepys, 9 September 1665</ref> whose wife was from Danzig.<ref>"...Captain Cocke and his lady, a German lady, but a very great beauty...". Diary of Samuel Pepys 22nd November 1661.</ref> [[Paul Rycaut]] was among the first to try to promote the duvet in England. Around 1700, he sent six-pound bags of down to his friends with instructions, warning that "the coverlet must be quilted high and in large panes, or otherwise it will not be warme".<ref name="featherbeds">{{cite web |title=Featherbeds, duvets, eiderdowns, feather ticks - history |url=http://www.oldandinteresting.com/history-feather-beds.aspx |website=Oldandinteresting.com |date=2006}}</ref><ref name=bbc_300/> He also tried to sell them without success.<ref name=bbc_300/>

In the mid-18th century, [[Thomas Nugent (travel writer)|Thomas Nugent]], a Briton on a [[Grand Tour|grand tour]] then passing through [[Westphalia]], observed with surprise:
{{blockquote|There is one thing very particular to them, that they do not cover themselves with bed-clothes, but lay one [[feather-bed]] over, and another under. This is comfortable enough in winter, but how they can bear their feather-beds over them in summer, as is generally practised, I cannot conceive.<ref>{{cite book
|title=The grand tour |volume=2 |year=1749 |first=Thomas |last=Nugent |publisher=S. Birt |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L6PEVKXedLAC&pg=PA109|page=109 |edition=first }}</ref>}}

Feather coverings came to be used in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century,<ref name="featherbeds"/> just as feather mattresses became common,<ref name="O&I"/> and were unsurprisingly known as "continental quilts".<ref name="featherbeds"/> They were not, however, universal. Of a British traveller in Germany in the 1930s, it was said that "She even learned to like feather quilts ('they don't seem to know about blankets – perhaps they didn't have them in the middle ages')".<ref name = boys>[[Julia Boyd]], ''Travellers in the Third Reich'', Elliot and Thompson Limited, London, 2017, {{ISBN|978-1-78396-381-2}}, p. 67</ref> Duvets remained uncommon in Britain until the 1960s.<ref name=bbc_300/>

Duvets are the most common form of bed covering, especially in northern Europe. They became popular throughout the world in the late 20th century.<ref>{{cite web|title=History of Featherbeds & Duvets|url=http://www.oldandinteresting.com/history-feather-beds.aspx|access-date=15 December 2011}}</ref> They are reported as being introduced to Britain by [[Terence Conran|Sir Terence Conran]] who sold them in via his London [[Habitat (retailer)|Habitat]] store commencing in 1964; Conran had encountered them in Sweden in the previous decade and believed that they offered an alternative to the traditional, cumbersome British method of bed-making that involved a top sheet, blankets, with sometimes also a thinner (British style) "eiderdown" on the top for extra warmth.<ref name=secret_history>{{cite news|date=2010-08-27|title=The Secret History Of: The duvet|language=en-GB|work=The Independent|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/property/interiors/the-secret-history-of-the-duvet-2063283.html|access-date=2023-09-26}}</ref> British users gradually came to prefer the style of sleeping under a duvet for the freedom of movement it offered and the reduced feel of weight on the body, in addition to the simplification of the bed making process.<ref name="duvets-v-eiderdowns" />

==Description==
[[File:White-duvet.jpg|thumb|A duvet without a cover, "quilted high and in large panes"]]

A modern duvet, like a [[sleeping bag]], may be filled with down or feathers of various quality and cost, or [[silk]], [[wool]], [[cotton]], or artificial fibers such as [[polyester]] batting.
Duvets can be made warmer than blankets without becoming heavy, and thereby can reduce the complexity of making a bed,<ref name=bbc_300/> as they can be used without additional [[blanket]]s, [[quilt]]s or other bed covers. Although bed making is indeed simpler using a duvet than its traditional "sheet plus blankets" equivalent, this may come at a cost: since a duvet is, by its nature, a fixed thermal efficiency or "tog rating", multiple duvets, of different tog ratings, may be required to be purchased per individual bed to suit the variation in warmth as required for the different seasons if adamant on not tossing a blanket on top for added warmth.

=== Hygiene ===
The duvet itself, just like an eiderdown, may be cleaned much more rarely, and depending on its contents, may require specialist dry cleaning.
Thus something easily washable is usually placed between the sleeper and the duvet, that can be removed and laundered as often as the bottom sheet and pillow cases. While it is perfectly possible to use top sheets, the common practice is specially made bag-covers, usually of cotton or a cotton-polyester blend.
While a [[comforter]] is fundamentally the same as a duvet in terms of construction, it is used somewhat differently. In the United States, comforters are used on top of the flat sheet, often without a cover.

==Thermal performance (tog rating)==
Manufacturers rate the performance of their duvets in [[Tog (unit)|togs]]  (10&nbsp;°C difference between the outsides at 1 Watt), as a measurement of [[thermal insulation]]. This enables the purchaser to select a duvet appropriate to the season: the higher the tog rating, the warmer the duvet.

A few manufacturers have marketed combined duvet sets consisting of one 4.5 tog and one 9.0 tog. The light-weight one is for summer and the medium one for spring and autumn; snapped together, 13.5 togs is designed for winter. Manufacturers may also offer up to 15 tog duvets.

In some countries, such as France, the warmth of a duvet is rated in grams per square metre (g/m<sup>2</sup>) instead of togs. The two systems are incompatible because, for example, a 250&nbsp;g/m<sup>2</sup> polyester filling and a 250&nbsp;g/m<sup>2</sup> feather filling have the same weight but offer different levels of thermal insulation and therefore different tog ratings.<ref>{{cite web |title=Which weight should I choose? |url=https://www.devonduvets.com/articles/which-weight-of-duvet |website=Devon Duvets |access-date=15 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Galloway |first1=Zoe |title=How to choose a duvet: Find out what tog, filling and size is best for you |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/house-garden/duvets/duvet-buying-guide-how-to-choose-tog-natural-synthetic-filling-best-type-winter-summer-reviews-a7946836.html |website=The Independent |date=27 May 2021 |access-date=15 December 2021}}</ref> However, typical all-season sets are sold as a pair of 200&nbsp;g/m<sup>2</sup> and 300&nbsp;g/m<sup>2</sup> duvets, creating a combined 500&nbsp;g/m<sup>2</sup> winter duvet, which would therefore be expected to match 13.5 togs.<ref>{{cite web |title=Couette Protection Active Anti-Acariens Végétal 4 Saisons |url=https://www.dodo.fr/couette-protection-active-anti-acariens-vegetal-4-saisons.html |website=Dodo SAS |access-date=15 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=What does GSM stand for? |url=https://www.easyrest.com.au/blog/17-what-does-gsm-stand-for- |website=Easyrest Pillows |access-date=15 December 2021}}</ref>

==Disadvantages==
Duvets/continental quilts/doonas are generally marketed as providing a more comfortable, wrap-around sleep experience, better freedom of movement for the sleeper, and easier/quicker bed making compared with the traditional "sheet and blankets" approach commonly found in the U.K. prior to their adoption. They do, however, come with some disadvantages, namely:
*The best duvets (filled with either 100%, or a high percentage of down) are expensive; cheaper equivalents (filled with either 100%, or a high percentage of feather, or a synthetic filling) are either heavier, or less comfortable for the same tog rating
*Duvets filled with feathers and/or down cannot be machine washed at home, but require specialist care
*Duvets tend to come in a fixed tog (warmth) rating, so a winter-grade duvet may be too warm for summer use, and vice versa
*Not all down is ethically produced (being a product of animal farming); certified ethically produced down products generally cost more
*Some people have allergies to products filled with feathers and/or down; for them, synthetic fillings are recommended.<ref>{{cite web |title=Duvet Advisor |url=https://www.duvetadvisor.co.uk/ |website=Duvet Advisor |access-date=7 October 2023}}</ref>

==Standards and sizes==
{{main|Bedding#Bedding sizes}}
Modern manufacturing conventions have resulted in a large number of sizes and standards.

==In popular culture==
In the story ''[[The Princess and the Pea]]'', published in 1835, [[Hans Christian Andersen|H.C. Andersen]] wrote about a princess lying on ten eiderdown duvets.

An eiderdown is mentioned in the [[Pink Floyd]] songs [[Julia Dream]], [[Flaming (song)|Flaming]] and [[A Pillow of Winds]].

The term "[[duvet day]]" is used in some countries to describe an allowance of one or more days a year when employees can simply phone in and say that they are not coming in to work, even though they have no leave booked and are not ill. The provision of this benefit became fashionable in the late 1990s with many larger employers in the UK.<ref name="WSpy">{{cite web|title=Duvet|website=Wordspy.com|url=http://www.wordspy.com/words/duvetday.asp}}</ref>

In the 1999 American film ''[[Fight Club]]'', Tyler Durden gives a speech in which he describes duvets as pretentious blankets:<blockquote>Do you know what a duvet is? [...] It’s a blanket. It’s just a blanket. Then why do guys like you and I know what a duvet is? Is this essential to our survival in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word? No</blockquote>

==See also==
* [[List of English words of French origin (D–I)]]
* [[Fill power]]
* [[Futon]]
* [[Silk comforter]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}{{Wiktionary}}
* {{cite web
 | url = https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A681329
 | title = How to fit a Duvet Cover: The One-minute Guide
 | author = Mina | publisher = BBC | date = 2002-02-05
}}

{{Bedding}}

[[Category:Blankets]]
[[Category:Bedding]]
[[Category:Linens]]
[[Category:Beds]]
[[Category:Ornaments]]