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I went to IKEA and got me a new sheet. It's awesome on the bed because instead of being "sheety", it's got those rubber parts so one doesn't fold it under the mattress to keep it in place but rather skewers it or maybe embraces it onto it.

  1. What's that kind of sheet called?
  2. What's the traditional, foldy, kind called?
  3. What's the right verb to describe the thing you do with the new kind of sheet?
Jasper
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Konrad Viltersten
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    "Skewering" does not seem like something a bedsheet can do. – Jasper Jan 28 '16 at 18:28
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    Did you mean "secures it" instead of "skewers it"? – Jasper Jan 28 '16 at 22:51
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    As a side-note, "I went and got me a ..." is marked and only good for some dialects of English. The more standard way to say it would be "I went to IKEA and got a new sheet." or "I went to IKEA and got myself a new sheet." – Gossar Jan 29 '16 at 03:07
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    +1 for the (unintended?) pun on "sheety". – March Ho Jan 29 '16 at 05:13
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    @Jasper If one considers the whole bed as a stick (very short and quite think, that is) and the sheet as a baggy film, then - using a lot of imagination - one could view it as a commenced skewering process that hasn't perforated the fabric yet. Having said that, it was a linguistic hack in lack of better verb. Feel free to suggest one more adequate in this situation, hehe. And I didn't mean secure, rather embrace. I looked up the Swedish word for it and this is what I got. We use that verb both for putting stuff on a stick and for e.g. a condom. We Swedes are weird... :) – Konrad Viltersten Jan 29 '16 at 06:32
  • @Gossar Correct remark as for fully proper English. I used the expression to create a humorous contrast between got me sth, which might be perceived as slang and the sophistication of purchasing fancy sheets. C.f. ya'll ain't no gonna be reimbursed by the contemporary legislature. If not intended, it's as weird as a medieval castle with ceiling. But I got me some humor so I intended the contrast indeed, I did. :) – Konrad Viltersten Jan 29 '16 at 06:42
  • @MarchHo Yessss... Unintended, entirely unintended... (pronounced exaggeratedly slowly and ominously emphasizing entirely) Just like when one types what the duck is that (typo intended)... – Konrad Viltersten Jan 29 '16 at 06:44

4 Answers4

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Fitted is the word you are looking for, a fitted sheet is the sheet above the mattress that has extra fabric to extend around the mattress and an elasticized outer edges to fit around the mattress holding it in place.

The other sheet is a flat sheet referred to as a standard bed sheet or drop sheet or top sheet.

When you are putting fresh linens on a bed, you are making up a bed.
The opposite is to strip (down) a bed.

The total effect of putting a bed together (sheets, pillows, covers) is called dressing a bed

When you are tidying up a bed after sleeping in it, you are making a bed.
The common command by parents

Go make your bed!

Before going to sleep, some hotels will turn down your bed by folding back the covers and (if you're lucky) leaving a chocolate on the fluffed pillows.

If you are in a mischievous mood, you can short sheet a bed; a common prank played on newlyweds.

We spend about a third of our life on top of a fitted sheet (usually), this intimate and fated relationship has lead to the phrase

You've made your bed, now lie in it

since there's no escaping it.

Peter
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    In my dialect there is actually a distinction between "making the bed" and "making up the bed". I "make the bed" after I get up in the morning by smoothing out the sheets and pulling up the coverlet. I "make up the bed" on laundry day when I put fresh clean sheets on the bed. I don't know how common that distinction is. The opposite of making up the bed is stripping the sheets. The opposite of making the bed is turning down the bed. – ColleenV Jan 28 '16 at 18:41
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    What dialect is that? – Russell Borogove Jan 28 '16 at 19:52
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    Flat sheets are also known as drop sheets. – Esoteric Screen Name Jan 28 '16 at 20:18
  • @ColleenV Totally unrelated to English - I'd like you to consider never making your bed. Apparently, when you put the covers on, the small, disgusting bed mites have a party. By letting in the cold, dry air, you kill them off. (Warning for unpleasant pictures - don't click when eating or of sensitive.) – Konrad Viltersten Jan 29 '16 at 06:53
  • Did you mean to say ...and an elastic to fit... using elastic as a noun? I like it better than rubber thingy. Just making sure it's a canonical term. – Konrad Viltersten Jan 29 '16 at 06:55
  • @ColleenV +1 Have incorporated your comments along with (at)Esoteric into the answer – Peter Jan 29 '16 at 12:43
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    @KonradViltersten Yup; "elastic" can be used as a noun. Its common when discussing fabric. In some places, it's also used to refer to the office supply item otherwise known as a "rubber band". – T.J.L. Jan 29 '16 at 13:23
  • Elastic bands invented 170 years ago, about now (patent awarded Mar 17, 1845). Royal Mail uses 2 million red ones every day – Peter Jan 29 '16 at 13:29
  • @KonradViltersten I think you mean dust mites - bed mites might be confused with bed bugs which are a different creature. Regardless, if you clean your linens regularly in hot water you can still make your bed. http://www.webmd.com/allergies/guide/dust-allergies http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/bed-bugs-in-residences/ – ColleenV Jan 29 '16 at 14:35
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From Wikipedia...

a fitted sheet has its four corners, and sometimes two or four sides, fitted with elastic, to be used only as a bottom sheet.

You still make the bed regardless of whether it has a fitted sheet. But if it does, people often call the other one1 a top sheet to distinguish it from the elasticated one (a fitted sheet doesn't work on top).


1 If indeed there is another sheet - increasingly less likely as we move from top sheets under "itchy" blankets to removable covers on duvets.

FumbleFingers
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    Agreed, in common daily use I hear and use top sheet and bottom sheet. In a more commercial, technical, or formal setting I would use flat sheet and fitted sheet respectively. – Gossar Jan 29 '16 at 03:13
  • Hmm... Let alone that we Swedes are weird but top sheet and bottom sheet? The sheet I'm talking about tucks in the mattress and I sleep directly on it. The only thing that's on top of that is the cover... So vertical intersection would be: the cover/blanket, my butt, the sheet, the mattress, some air, the floor... How do others do...? – Konrad Viltersten Jan 29 '16 at 07:06
  • @KonradViltersten: We swedes normally use only a duvet cover and no top sheet. In other countries it seems common to use flat sheets on top as well - between yourself and the blanket (or whatever you have over yourself for warmth). – Emil Styrke Jan 29 '16 at 07:31
  • @EmilStyrke Oh, now I see... Last week, it'd be a great idea because we had negative 18 degrees in Stockholm and the heating in my building kind of died... I had to go to CleasOhlsson and get one of those ugly, blue heat fans or whatever it's called... – Konrad Viltersten Jan 29 '16 at 07:38
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    Since the top sheet is only a single layer I doubt it adds much warmth, but an extra blanket is useful in those cases of course. :) I think the blue thing would be called a "space heater", by the way. – Emil Styrke Jan 29 '16 at 07:58
  • @KonradViltersten "fan heater" (BrEng). – A E Jan 29 '16 at 21:30
  • @AE I see where you're coming from. However, that's not precisely what I referred to. The item I showed was a fan heater, indeed, but the reference was not to any such fan heater but this specific type that's used at construction sites etc. It's way too ugly and "outdoory" to be used in ones house. It's moist resistant and heavy duty, consuming the energy very wastefully but getting the heat up in no time. We call it construction (site) fan (heater) and it's different from just a fan heater. Is it the same term in English anyway? – Konrad Viltersten Jan 29 '16 at 21:49
  • @Konrad: As Emil says, those big fans are usually called [industrial] space* heaters*. – FumbleFingers Jan 30 '16 at 12:36
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I'm going to have to make a trip to IKEA because it sounds like you are not describing a traditional fitted sheet. It sounds like you are describing a modified standard sheet where the corners have rubber (for grip) pockets sewn in such that the corners of the mattress fit into the rubber pockets of the sheet which holds the sheet firmly attached to the mattress like a fitted sheet. But this kind of sheet seems like it would be much easier to fold than a traditional fitted sheet. I would still say, "making the bed" with this kind of sheet, but to describe the specific action of hooking the sheet pocket around the mattress corner I would probably say I was, "buttoning" the sheet down, or "dressing" the mattress up.

geneSummons
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  • No need to go to IKEA. The reason for my question is that while I love fitted sheets on the bed, folding the suckers is a major PIA. So I was looking for a life hack on how to do that. For that, I needed a term to search for. Now I got one. And violá - first hit on Google! I'm so happy now! – Konrad Viltersten Jan 29 '16 at 07:02
  • @Konrad: I'm so happy too! I've always made a dog's dinner of folding my fitted sheets, but I never thought of looking for a Youtube guide. (I'm looking forward to laundry day now, to see if it works! :) – FumbleFingers Jan 29 '16 at 12:54
  • @FumbleFingers Well, until recently I had an even better system. Two sets of sheets. One on the bed being used. The other in the hamper waiting for laundry. Then... Along came a third one and the whole system collapsed, resulting in me looking for life hacks, which led to this question. I'm seriously considering disposing one of the sets and get back to my non-folding system altogether, hehe. – Konrad Viltersten Jan 29 '16 at 16:22
  • A viola is a musical instrument. The word you're looking for is voilà. @KonradViltersten – Dawood ibn Kareem Jan 29 '16 at 22:09
  • @DavidWallace I'm aware. It appears that you're missing the accent above my "a". It does read violá. Perhaps the thingy is in the wrong direction but I seem not to have that character (humanly easily) accessible from my keyboard. – Konrad Viltersten Jan 30 '16 at 00:41
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    The problem is more the order of the O and the I. – Dawood ibn Kareem Jan 30 '16 at 00:43
  • I wouldn't have noticed if all you'd done was reverse the angle of the accent. – Dawood ibn Kareem Jan 30 '16 at 00:44
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The name "Fitted Sheet" has already been given.

I was going to suggest "evil sheet of difficult foldiness and doom", but since I see that issue has been dealt with, I'll suggest instead contour sheet as a relatively uncommon synonym used -- so far as I can tell -- mostly by marketers trying to make them sound fancier.

I am interested by your description of them as "fancy" sheets. Growing up in the UK, I found beds with fitted sheets to be frowned upon as "not as good".

I think, though, that this might be more a factor of the amount of extra work needed to provide crisp linen sheets carefully tucked into the corners of the bed. So upmarket hotels generally provide tucked-in apple-pie beds because it provides the impression of hand-cared service, but likely also because there's no elastic to go out on them if you wash them very hot, so they last longer, and are probably cheaper.

Dewi Morgan
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    I might guess that the evil sheets of difficult foldiness and doom could be spared from frowning for the same reason why home-grind beans are considered the base for a better coffee than instant coffee powder. Or eating on a silver platter or exclusive china being base for a culinary excellence? One needs to invest more work, it's more costly, so the reptile brains tells us it's better? – Konrad Viltersten Jan 30 '16 at 10:31
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    Also, I learned that in many cases, the less usual something is in a region, the more exclusive and desirable it becomes. In US, people pay top dollar for a car with an automatic transmission. Why, for duck's sake, why?! (Quack-a-roonie intended.) In Sweden, it's actually the opposite. If we want an automatic, it can bump up the price by 15%. (And for the record, the only way for manual to be desirable should be on a bike!) – Konrad Viltersten Jan 30 '16 at 10:36