In reading novels set in carriage days or with the early advent of the motor car, i find people wrapping 'rugs' around themselves. "What ho," cry I, "are the ripping up the carpet?"
Of course not. Consulting the dictionaries, I found the word as so used is closer to the original meaning of heavy cloth that evolved into a floor covering:
rug (n.)
1550s, "coarse fabric," of Scandinavian origin; compare Norwegian dialectal rugga "coarse coverlet," from Old Norse rogg "shaggy tuft," from Proto-Germanic *rawwa-, perhaps related to rag (n.) and rough (adj.). Sense evolved to "coverlet, wrap" (1590s), then "mat for the floor" (1808). Meaning "toupee" is theater slang from 1940. Cut a rug "dance" is slang first attested 1942. To sweep (something) under the rug in the figurative sense is from 1954.
(OEtymD)
Still, with the slang, it's more widespread than one might expect at first thought.
Rug
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Rug
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Re: Rug
Do you remember the days when your progeny were puking and mewing on the rug? [Please don't be offended, I am merely paraphrasing Shakespeare.] We called them rug-rats.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.
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