couchette

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French couchette.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛt

Noun

couchette (plural couchettes)

1. (rare) A couch.
   • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

     The doctor […] desired they would have the goodness to repose themselves without ceremony, each in his respective couchette, while he and his friend Mr. Pallet would place themselves upright at the ends, that they might have the pleasure of serving those that lay along.

2. A compartment on a passenger train having berths for sleeping.
   • 1962 July, Marcus Newman, “By Car-Sleeper to Switzerland”, in Modern Railways, page 50:

     But I was disturbed to find a blot on my conception of the ultra-modern S.N.C.F.—the couchette car offered neither hot water nor, unless I looked in the wrong places, an electric razor point.

3. A berth in such a compartment.

References

• “couchette”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

French

Etymology

From couche +‎ -ette.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

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Noun

couchette f (plural couchettes)

1. (rail transport) sleeping berth

Descendants

• English: couchette
• Russian: кушетка (kušetka)

Further reading

• “couchette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.