What language did the word 'mattress' originally come from?

There is general agreement among scholars that, while the 13th century French had a word 'materas' for their mattresses and the Italians around the same time called theirs a 'materasso', both of these words were 'borrowed' from the ancient Arabic 'al-matrah', which is literally translated as "the thing thrown down."

Mattresses and/or large cushions were thrown down on the floor to be reclined upon, hence the name.

Early mattresses were filled with natural material such as straw, feathers or horse hair.

As innovation continued, the first half of the 20th century saw a typical mattress sold in Great Britain, Europe and North America containing an innerspring core and cotton batting or fibre filling.

Nowadays, most modern mattresses usually contain either an inner spring core or materials such as latex, viscoelastic or other flexible polyurethane foams, and some even are filled with water or simply air.