futon

Borrowed from Japanese 布団 (futon), in turn from Middle Chinese 蒲團 (MC bu dwan, “meditation cushion”) (compare Mandarin 蒲团 (pútuán)), from 蒲 (buo, “bulrush, cattail”) + 團 (duɑn, “sphere, round object”) from the way the original cushion was round and made from woven bulrushes.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfuːtɒn/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfutɑn/
• Rhymes: -uːtɒn

futon (plural futons or futon)

1. A thin mattress of tufted cotton or similar material, placed on a floor or on a raised, foldable frame as a bed.
   • 1891, Eliza Scidmore, Jinrikisha Days in Japan, page 145:

     The Japanese bed is the floor, with a wooden box under the neck for a pillow and a futon for a covering. To the foreigner the Japanese landlord allows five or six futons, or cotton-wadded comforters, and they make a tolerable mattress, although not springy, and rather apt to be damp and musty.

   • 1904, Clarence Ludlow Brownell, The Heart of Japan: Glimpses of Life and Nature Far from the Travellers’ Track in the Land of the Rising Sun, London: Methuen & Co., […], page 54:

     The futon are easily aired, and may be carried about readily when moving.

   • 1981, The East, page 66:

     Normally one or two futon are laid on tatami, several inches of straw matting recessed into the floor, providing a firm but extremely comfortable night’s rest.

   • 2015, Heidi Kim, editor, Taken from the Paradise Isle: The Hoshida Family Story, University Press of Colorado, →ISBN:

     Some futon (cotton-filled comforters and mattresses) were piled in one corner and few clothing belonging to father hung on some nails on the wall.

2. A round cushion used for Zen meditation, traditionally made of woven bulrush leaves.
3. A specific kind of sofa-bed, with a fixed cushion that forms a mattress when folded down and a sofa when folded up.
   • 2011 November 18, Ryan Allis, “From Dumpster Diving to Running a $50 Million Company”, in Time‎:

     I was 18 years old, sleeping on a futon, cooking on a George Foreman grill and showering at a friend's house every few days.

• fount

futon

1. accusative singular of futo

From Japanese 布団 (futon, ふとん).

• IPA^(key): /ˈfuton/, [ˈfut̪o̞n]
• Rhymes: -uton
• Syllabification^(key): fu‧ton

futon

1. futon

• “futon”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

From Japanese 布団(ふとん) (futon), 布團(ふとん) (futon), from Middle Chinese 蒲團 (bu-dwan, “meditation cushion”) (compare Mandarin 蒲团 (pútuán)), from 蒲 (buo, “cattail”) + 團 (duɑn, “sphere, round object”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈfu.tɔn]
• Hyphenation: fu‧ton

futon (plural futon-futon, first-person possessive futonku, second-person possessive futonmu, third-person possessive futonnya)

1. futon: a Japanese-style mattress or duvet; a thin mattress of tufted cotton or similar material, placed on a floor or on a raised, foldable frame as a bed.

   Hypernym: matras

• “futon” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

futon

1. Rōmaji transcription of ふとん