the word <duvet> is the actual French word for down, as in the soft baby fluff on the chicks. So my way of thinking is a duvet = an eiderdown, except maybe eider is a particular type of bird? It must have feathers in it to qualify technically, would it not? It is NOT a comforter. A comforter is filled with solid sheets of material (synthetic or natural) or batiqueing. Non? I LOVE my duvet and will never go back to heavy blankets/comforter again.

Bed coverings (whatever) are actually body coverings and are meant to maintain comfortable body temperatures. Mattress pads can be used to decrease heat loss; and a requirement for heavier top covers. Electric mattress pads increase bed comfort as they keep the whole mattress structure warm. A prime reason for sheets (and night clothes) is to keep the blankets, duvet or whatever clean. Sheets are easier to wash than blankets! (or duvets/comforters. Check your next hotel; do they change the sheets every day or every stay? Next question: Quilt or comforter?

What on earth is a comforter? A quilt?

Sheila, I think that a comforter is what our grannies called an eiderdown.
My grandma had one. It was a bit like a duvet but sewn into its cover.

I imagine that Americans when they first met a duvet, tried to think of the closest thing to it at home.

A duvet shouldn't be used with a top sheet because the idea is that the feathers settle around you to keep you warm.
With a sheet, it is just an eiderdown.
You treat it rather like a pillow and change the cover when you change the pillowslips.
I'm just trying to remember when duvets reached the UK. We have certainly had them for years and blankets are very rarely used nowadays.

I have a nice story, I think from Bill Oddie (TV naturalist).
He said that he was on a nature walk with a party when a little boy spotted a group of eider ducks.
He shouted, "Mum, look, duvet ducks!"

I have a super king (King in the U.S.) feather duvet. It is in 2 pieces that snal together so in the summer I use one and the winter I take out the other half for a warm double...don't know the tog. (I also have the best thing to change the duvet that I found in Bed and Bath in the U.S., duvet clips that attach to the corners and are padded. When I change the duvet I use thes and they keep it from slipping inside the cover. Great invention!

Has everybody agreed to pronounce the word like "dooveh" so far? Then I am the first to say agaist it. As somebody metioned, it's a French word, then the French pronouciation is like "dewveh". American might like to pronouce "doovAY", that's another matter.

And you don't want to sleep under any type of duvet in summer. I have 2-layer (called 4 seasons)type. You can use one layer in warmer seasons but even this is too warm in summer unless you are high up in the mountain areas. I live in Geneva and a thin sheet is enough in mid-summer (and no pyjamas).

I think Siobhan has the same type (4 seasons) of duvet as mine. If she can sleep in one layer of it, Ireland must be much cooler in summer than Geneva, Switzerland.

It never gets too hot here and is cool in summer mornings so it is perfect in one layer for the summer. I always leave a window slighly open so it get cooler as well.

As Klondike says, <i>duvet</i> is French for down. The French for duvet, as in the bed covering, is <i>couette</i>.
Meanwhile, the French word <i>&eacute;dredon</i> derives from the English word eiderdown and refers to that type of quilt.

Personally I can't stand sleeping in beds made up with sheets + blankets (especially those horrible scratchy wool blankets that feel so unpleasant against the skin). Making the bed takes forever and I hate that constricted, tucked in feeling. Much prefer a duvet, although I think that changing the cover should be made an Olympic event.

Just to add some variation, here in Australia we call it a doona or sometimes a continental quilt. Pretentious people call it a duvet.
i think IKea can take the credit for their surpassing the use of blankets - and the cost of wool.

I would call a comforter a padded decorative quilt - like a bedspread, only used with a skirt rather than floor length. It's usually sold with matching pillow shams.

I have never heard a quilt called a &quot;comforter&quot; in the UK. Like others, we had sheets and blankets, topped with a quilt as children - heavy and restricting. Then &quot;continental quilts&quot; were introduced - we didn't call them duvets at first, this being a strange foreign word!

My parents told me that when they lived in Czechoslovakia, when they were first married, they had a single goose down quilt each, even on a double bed, which you then snuggled into. The goose down ones are the best, very warm but light.

For what it's worth, &quot;duvet&quot; is French for down (as in eider+down), which would have been the highest quality feather-filler.

An eiderdown (bedding), which becomes &eacute;dredon in French, to me means something that's barely wider than the top surface of the bed and therefore you need the top sheets to go with it; whereas a duvet is wide enough to hang over the sides and keep you warm enough on its own.

And by chance, not long after discovering the Australian name 'doona' for it, I saw a TV programme where a subtitled Dane used a word sounding almost exactly the same to mean a duvet. So the idea presumably arrived in Australia from Denmark, whereas in Britain it came via French.

But it's what Americans mean by a comforter, I think - though to me, a comforter sounds like a person. But I won't go there.

I've just remembered that when we first got duvets for the beds (in Scotland), we called them &quot;downies&quot;.

I remember that my sister was the first in our household to get a 'continental quilt' back in the 70s. My brother and I were very bitter about it, and always fought over who would take her bed when she was away.

Can't stand sheets and blankets - feel like I've been mummified.

Kate
London

Found this definition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duvet

Quote:

&quot;In eastern Australia it is called a &quot;Doona&quot;, from a trademarked brand name derived from the Old Norse dunn meaning &quot;down feathers&quot;.&quot;

To me an eiderdown was the thin, patterned quilt, with no over-hang, that sat on top of the sheets and blankets when I was a child.

Thank you all for a sleepless night as I pondered the intricacies of bedding. Now, the use of that term can lead to a whole new revelation of likes and dislikes. And you haven't even started on the preferences of percale versus flannel for sheets and pillowcases and the appropriate times to switch much like &quot;no white shoes after labor day&quot;? Should the opening for the duvet cover be at the top or bottom or even on the side? What does one do, for example, if there is disagreement between partners? God, so many decisions. I dread another sleepless night.

Since I grew up a few miles from the &quot;Company Store&quot;, I have always had a duvet. Duvets are made up of feather and down. The higher the percentage of down the more expensive the duvet will be and normally lighter(poofy)in weight. But the lighter weight has nothing to do with the warmth. I use a duvet in the chilly winters. In the summer, I use a down filled blanket that actually keeps me cool. If used correctly, they regulate your own body heat since it is all natural and not synthetic. I also have a featherbed with cover that I place under the fitted sheets. But after my trip to Germany and the Hilton in Paris, I want the European version for the long cold Chicago winters. I have looked for them at the major Department stores in Paris but they have the same style that is sold in the states. Anyone know where to find the style Smalti described?

We are living with both options now...at our apt in Brussels we have a duvet (in the American sense) over a comforter, but in the UK, we have a beautiful big, heavy quilt we bought at the Frog Hollow State Craft Center in Middlebury, VT--with a top sheet, tucked in at the bottom. We can go either way and sleep just as well with one or the other as long as we have big comfy pillows (I LOVE those oversized rectangular Swiss pillows...mmmm).
When it comes to duvet closures, I like the zipper ones simply because when I wash them, I zip it shut. The ones I can't close all the way invariably &quot;swallow&quot; the pillow cases and I forget to fish them out before drying the load, so they don't dry properly.

Tulips, if you come back to this thread, I saw today that your favorite store--Chine--on the Avenue Louise is seeking a part-time salesperson who can speak French and Dutch. Tempted? Think of that nice big employee discount...

Btilke, where did you find a zippered cover? Mine have all been with ties or buttons.

Switzerland, in Basel to be precise. The pillows have zippers too.

Duvet, doovay, doo. I learned a few things reading this thread. I've a (USA) down comforter which is inside the duvet cover I made, coordinates with my curtains. It is envelop style, the top is two pieces with covered buttons. And a featherbed. I live in Texas so I may be &quot;over&quot; downed for my climate, but the featherbed did the trick to keep me from getting cold in the winter.

Just wish I had someone to do the fluffing for me.

In the summer I sleep on top of the down duvet and put a sheet on top of me, works great.

I'm glad someone started this because it answers a lot of questions.
Oddly no one mentioned that some people are allergic to duck or goose feathers/or down.
As for people who sleep with blankets, quilts and comforters (I have all three on my bed), we live in Alaska and my husband demands to have the window open at night. However, I was raised in eastern Oregon and grew up feeling the security from the weight of blankets at night.
I enjoyed the duvet at Sheen Falls Lodge in Ireland. Even though it was a 5* hotel, I DID wonder how often they washed the cover. So, thanks for lots of answers.

The duvet answers to the top sheet as it is covered with a slip on type of sheet.
So it must be washed also.

Hopingtotravel, I use feather-proof cases to protect against allergies, with the duvet cover over them, same as on pillows.

We use down and feather duvets and duvet covers, except for one allergic child who uses a puffy polyester &quot;duvet.&quot; No sheets, the duvet is collectively both sheet and comforter. They are all washed and (alas) ironed weekly. In summer we fold the duvets (decoratively) at the foot of the beds and use sheets and thin cotton blankets instead. Occasionally in summer, when someone who does not actually <i>pay</i> the electric bill nonetheless plunges the thermostat to 59 degrees, we use the duvet, too. :)

Before this topic is &quot;put to bed&quot; I thought I'd mention that a silk comforter / duvet / poofy thing may be the best thing since sliced bread, so to speak. We got one in China (wrong board, I know) and they came in varying weights. Our light weight silk comforter is perfect for the months in between the really cold and really warm weather and it's light as a cloud.

Sweet dreams!

Thank you MissPrism. How strange we all are! I do wholy agree with you about sheets and duvets (we probably call them downies, but the words are wholly interchangeable).

Eiderdown, of course, comes from the Eider duck which had the softest feathers for the purpose.

&quot;how do you get down from an elephant?&quot;

&quot;You don't. You get down from a duck!&quot; (boom, boom)

I have a friend who works for Scottish Natural Heritage (a bit like your Parks people) and she's only ever lived in fairly remote places.

She moved with her 3 year old daughter from Orkney, where there are a lot of Eider, to Islay, where there are few.

The daughter went to nursery where she was eventually asked &quot;What noise do the ducks make?&quot;, a question clearly inviting the answer &quot;quack quack&quot;. But no, the little girl said &quot;oo...ooo; oo...ooo&quot; with the appropriate rising inflection, much to the consternation of the teacher!

I think that eider ducks sound like little old ladies exchanging scandal.
&quot;Ooh, she didn't did she?&quot;, &quot;Oooh!!

Nikki, thanks. I didn't know they made feather-proof cases.