[Vocabulary] Looking for some vocabulary.

[majid87]

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since I last posted some question here but I am back after all.

Here in South Asian countries we have this tradition of having our meals on the ground/floor (we don't eat on tables much). No whenever we sit and have our meal, we have to spread a sheet or some cloth on the ground/floor and we put all the food items and dishes on this piece of cloth: it could even be a a polythene sheet kind of material. I was looking for a word for this thing?

I know many of you will recommend the word "tablecloth" but that's the problem: we don't put this cloth on the table but rather on the ground. So could you help please?

 

[bhaisahab]

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since I last posted some question here but I am back after all.

Here in South Asian countries we have this tradition of having our meals on the ground/floor (we don't eat on tables much). No whenever we sit and have our meal, we have to spread a sheet or some cloth on the ground/floor and we put all the food items and dishes on this piece of cloth: it could even be a a polythene sheet kind of material. I was looking for a word for this thing?

I know many of you will recommend the word "tablecloth" but that's the problem: we don't put this cloth on the table but rather on the ground. So could you help please?

When I lived in Rajasthan we called it a "mat". What do you call it in your language?

 

[SoothingDave]

"Ground cover" is what I would say. There's no word for such a thing I am aware of. If we were going on a picnic, we would bring a blanket or something to cover the ground.

 

[majid87]

@ Bhaisahab ... Well in Urdu we call it "Dastarkhwan" .... You'll pronounce it as ... Duster (d will have a th sound as in The) - Kh (I don't know how to explain this sound because it doesn't exist in English but it sounds like the noise you make while snoring... hehe) - Wan (Uan or Juan)

 

[majid87]

If you look at this link from Wikipedia... Dastarkh

You see they are also calling it "Tablecloth" and I know we could use that word too but it just doesn't sound right when

you are referring to a cloth being spread on the ground. But I think if there's no "specific" word for such a thing in English then I will definitely have to call it tablecloth.

 

[Tdol]

Why not just use cloth or mat? In many contexts, you will need to explain it anyway.

 

[majid87]

@ Tdol

You are right, I only wanted to know since we have such a "special" name for this "cloth" as you refer to it as. But I think tablecloth would do. Thanks for the help.

 

[Tdol]

We don't eat the same way so we don't have a special word. ;-)

 

[majid87]

hahahahaha

Yeah I think it'll solve the problem if we just moved from floor to table for dinners. hahahaha