1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pillow

PILLOW (O. Eng. pylu; Lat. pulvinus, a cushion), - a support for the head during sleep or rest. The pillow of Western nations is a cushion of linen or other material, stuffed with feathers, down, hair or wool. In the East it is a framework made of bamboo or rattan with a depression in the top to receive the neck; similarly blocks of wood with a concave-shaped top are used by the natives of other countries. The word is found in various technical uses for a block or support, as for a brass bearing for the journal of a shaft, and the like. In architecture the term "pillowed," or "pulvinated," is given to the frieze of an order which bulges out in the centre arid is convex in section. It is found in friezes of some of the later works of the Roman school and is common in Italian practice.