Glossary of Rug Terms
Abrash: A color variation or stripe of a slightly different hue across the body of a carpet, the result of a slight color difference in the dye lots used.
Allover Design: A rug field pattern that has large scale patterns filling the field instead of a repeated design.
Anatolian: Name applied to all Turkish rugs from the Anatolian plateau.
Aniline Dye: A type of industrial or synthetic dye derived from benzol, a product of coal tar, introduced to the carpet industry in the late nineteenth century. The dyes were not colorfast: they faded when exposed to sunlight and tended to run when damp.
Antique Finish: A chemical wash used to tone down colors and give a rug an old or antique appearance.
Aubusson: A pileless rug, generally with a floral medallion in pastel colors, once woven in France. The designs of these rugs have been adapted to pile carpets and are now woven in India and China.
Baft: Persian word for «knot».
Berdelik: Rug used as a wall hanging, often a silk rug.
Bohcha: Of Turkish origin, the word means «wrapper» and is used to describe a particular kind of bag made by folding four corners of a rug into a kind of envelope.
Bokhara: Name associated with Turkoman-design rugs woven in India and Pakistan. Also an ancient marketplace for the rugs of Turkistan.
Border: A band or series of bands surrounding the field and focal point of a carpet.
Boteh (also buta, botta): A small Oriental rug motif that resembles a shape variously described as a teardrop, pinecone, pear, or leaf, symbolizing potential growth. Because it was a defining motif of Indian wool shawls made in the paisley mills in Scotland, it is commonly known as the paisley motif.
Brocade: Weaving technique used in some flat-woven rugs whereby a supplementary weft is added into the ground warp and weft to create a pattern.
Carding: Process for preparing wool for spinning, in which two wooden paddles with metal teeth entangle the fibers so that they lie in different directions, yielding soft, fuzzy wool.
Cartoon: A piece of graph paper on which a rug pattern has been drawn as a guide for weaving. Each square represents a single knot, the color of which is keyed to the color of the square.
Cartouche: A cloud motif that often surrounds a date or an inscription woven into a rug.
Carved Pile: Grooves cut into the rug pile to accentuate the borders and designs, done on some Chinese and Indian carpets.
Caucasian: Refers to rugs woven in the Caucasus Mountain region, a narrow strip of land between the Black and Caspian seas. These rugs are brightly colored and feature highly stylized signs.
Ceyrek: Turkish term for small rugs that measure approximately 33 by 54 inches (83 by 137cm).
Chrome Dye: A colorfast synthetic dye developed in the twentieth century and used to dye wool.
Churdjun (also Khorjun): A small saddlebag.
Chuval (also Tchuvall): In Turkoman weaving, a large storage bag usually hung from the interior framework of the Turkoman yurt, or tent.
Cicim: A type of weft-float pileless weave in which an additional wooled weft is interlaced into a rug's regular warp and weft system, giving the appearance of solid lines over the ground weave.
Closed Back: Refers to the appearance of the back of a Chinese carpet. The weft threads of a closed-back carpet are not visible because the knots completely cover them.
Cochineal: Red dye derived from the dried bodies of a species of insect.
Colorfast: Term used for a rug dye that does not change when washed or exposed to the sun.
Combing: Process for preparing wool for spinning in which wool fibers are pulled through a wooden comb with metal teeth, aligning the fibers in the same direction.
Corrosion: Deterioration of dyed fiber caused by the oxidants of a dye containing iron, often seen in dark brown or black wool.
Cut-loop Technique: Tibetan method of weaving carpets. A strand of yam is looped around pairs of warp threads and then around a row; after a row is completed, a knife is run along the rod, cutting the pile.
Dhurrie: A pileless carpet, usually woven in India with either cotton or wool. The design is created by interweaving colored weft threads through warp threads.
DOBAG: A Turkish acronym for Natural Dye Research and Development Project. Rugs woven in certain cooperatives organized by provincial governments are allowed to carry the distinctive DOBAG label, which also includes the name of the weaver.
Dozar: Persian term for rugs measuring 54 by 84 inches (137 by 213cm).
Elem: Turkoman term used for the skirts of flat-woven strips at the ends of carpets. It is also applies to end panels on pile rugs replacing the earlier flat-woven strips in some Turkoman rugs. An additional panel or band woven at the top and bottom of most Turkoman rugs and bags.
Embossed Bil: Sculptured rug pile, or pile that has been trimmed or cut into a relief effect.
Ensi (also engsi or hachli, meaning «with a cross»): In Turkoman weaving, a rug used as a doorway to the tent or dwelling.
Flat-weave: Used to describe the technique of any carpet that does not use the knotted-pile technique, including kilim, sumak, and jijim rugs.
Float: A term used to describe a portion of warp or weft threads that passes over and under two or more warp or weft threads.
Foundation: The weave of warp and weft threads of a pile rug.
Fringe: The loose ends created by the carpet's warp threads that emerge from the upper and lower ends of a rug. Sometimes the fringe is left plain; sometimes it is braided or knotted.
Pities Knot (also symmetrical knot, Turkish knot): A knot in which a strand of wool encircles both warp threads with the loose ends drawn tightly between them.
Gireh: Persian word for «knot.»
Gul (also gol; Persian word for «flower»): In Turkoman weaving used to describe the characteristic repetitive small medallion. It is thought to denote the tribal affiliation of the weaver.
Hali (also Khali, kali): Term of Turkish origin, used in the Middle East as the generic word for «rug»; also the name of the most important and comprehensive magazine devoted to carpets, published in London since 1978.
Handle: A term commonly used to characterize the weight, solidity, and flexibility of a rug. Adjectives used to describe handle include «stiff, limp, and flexible».
Hatchli: Rug design, originally Turkoman, in which the field is divided into quadrants by wide bars or strips.
Hegira (from the Arabic Hijra, meaning «escape or flight»): The Islamic system of recording historical dates, beginning July 16, a.d. 622, using the lunar year, which is shorter than the solar year. The calculation of equivalent dates involves a mathematical formula.
Heybe (also Khorjin): Usually refers to a characteristic double saddlebag woven in many parts of the Middle East.
Industrial Dye (also synthetic dye, chemical dye): Dyestuff manufactured in chemical factories in Europe and later in the Middle East. Includes aniline dyes, azo dyes, and chrome dyes, all of which have been used for rug wool. All dyes are chemicals; few are traditional.
Jufti Knots (also false knots, double knots): A technique of weaving in every other hole, weakening the basic structure of the rug. In other words, the weaver uses four warp threads per knot instead of two, resulting in half the number of knots and half the amount of wool.
Kellegi: Persian term for a long, narrow rug measuring approximately 6 by 13 feet (1.8 by 4m). Also refers to the side runners in the traditional Persian layout.
Kellei: Persian term that refers to the main carpet in a traditional Persian arrangement. Usually a large rectangular carpet measuring 7 feet 6 inches by 18 feet (2.3 by 5.5m).
Kenareh: Persian term for runners measuring 2 feet 6 inches by 8 feet (0.8 by 2.4m) or 3 feet 6 inches by 20 feet (1 by 6m).
Khorjin: See Heybe.
Kilim: Flat-woven rugs made by using a technique in which the colored wefts that form the pattern are beaten down to cover the warps completely. Includes the common slit-tapestry technique, where vertical slits separate areas of colored weft, and other techniques where slits are avoided by interlocking wefts with one another or around a shared warp, Also, a weft-faced weave created by interweaving colored weft threads through the warp threads.
Knockout: The private auction held by members of a dealer coalition to dispose of the rugs they have bought at a public auction without bidding against one another. At the knockout, some dealers will receive rugs while others will receive money that otherwise would have gone to the original owner of the rug and auctioneer.
Knot: The basic unit of design and structure in a pile carpet, consisting of a piece of colored wool, silk, or cotton yarn, usually looped around two warps. It produces a colored tuft of wool on the front surface of the carpet.
KSI: Knots per square inch. In the metric system, the common method of recording knot density is knots per square decimeter, or ksd, that is, knots in a square 10 centimeters on a side, containing 100 square centimeters. (To figure approximate ksd, multiply ksi by 15.5.)
Kurk Wool: The finest quality of wool used in rug weaving, consisting of the under hairs from a lamb's shoulders and flanks.
Lazy Lines: A term used to describe diagonal lines created by reversing the weft thread back on itself rather than having it carried across the width of the carpet.
Lechek (also spandrel): Persian term for the corner design of a rug.
Leckek Torunj: Persian term for a carpet designed with central and corner medallions.
Mafrash: A term of Turkish origin, it refers to the medium-size horizontal bag woven by nomadic people in various parts of the Middle East.
Mihrab: Arabic word for a niche in a mosque or community prayer hall indicating the direction of Mecca, towards which Muslims face when praying. It is also a term applied to the pointed archlike form in a sedjadeh, or prayer rug.
Mordant: A fixative used in the dyeing of wool, which enables the dye to affix to the wool.
Mosque (from the Arabic word masjid, meaning «place of prostration»): In the Islamic world, a building for community prayer whose floors are often covered with carpets.
Namazlyk: A term combining the Persian and Turkish words for «prayer».
Naqshe: Persian word for «pattern» or «design».
Natural Dye: A dye derived from a plant, root, flower, fruit, tree, or insect.
Node: The loop portion of the knot as it appears on the back of the rug.
Painted Rugs: Rugs designed using a system of painting the colors on with synthetic dyes.
Palas: A Caucasian kilim.
Panel Design: A rug design in which the field is divided into rectangular compartments, each of which encloses one or more motifs.
Patina: The sheen acquired by the pile of a rug with age and use.
Pile: Nap of the rug created when the knotted wool is clipped.
Programmed Rugs: A term applied to Chinese rugs indicating that the same design is «programmed» and manufactured over and over again in different sizes and colors.
Pushti: Persian term for a small pillow cover or small rug that measures 24 by 36 inches (61 by 91cm).
Roller Beam: A type of vertical loom in which warps are unrolled from a horizontal cylindrical beam at the top of the loom as the finished rug is rolled up on a smaller cylinder at the bottom. It allows for the weaving of a long run on a short loom.
Saph (Arabic word for «rank» or «row»): Applied to large carpets designed for use in mosques, with designs divided into rows of compartments, each a place for one person to pray. Also called a «family» prayer rug because the series of mihrabs, side by side, is suitable for the entire family.
Savonnerie: A rug hand-knotted in France, with a thick, heavy pile in pastel colors. Modern rugs in this design are now made in Romania.
Scoarte: A flat-weave Romanian rug woven with the slit-weave design.
Sculptured Pile: Rug pile that is embossed or clipped to give a relief effect.
Seccades: Turkish term for carpets that measure 45 by 78 inches (114 by 198cm).
Sedjadeh: (literally, «for prostration»): The Turkish word, or general term, for a rug that measures about 42 by 66 inches (107 by 168cm), suitable for one person to use for prayer. Also applied to rugs of this size with a design of the symbolic arch, doorway, or mihrab, indicating the direction of prayer — toward Mecca — or the gateway to heaven.
Selvedge: The characteristic side finish of a rug, generally consisting of one or more warps wrapped with the ends of the wefts or with added colored wool yarns.
Senneh Knot (also symmetrical knot, Persian rug knot): A knot in which a strand of yam encircles one warp thread and winds loosely around the other.
Shared Warp Technique: Pileless rug-weaving technique in which different-colored wefts meet and share a common warp, loop around the warp, and double back on themselves.
Slit Tapestry (also slit-weave technique, kilim): Pileless rug-weaving technique in which different-colored wefts meet and the two colors are kept separate so that each thread doubles back on itself, creating a slit at the juncture.
Stylization: The artistic process whereby an element of carpet design gradually changes over time as a result of repeated adaptations by individual weavers from the models. This usually results in gradual simplification of original forms, together with a movement away from curvilinear forms toward geometric forms.
Talim (Arabic word for «instruction»): Term used in Iran for a document written in special notation that can be read aloud as a set of knotting instructions to weavers sitting at the loom.
Traditional Dyes (also natural dyes, vegetable dyes): Dyes made and used in traditional weaving societies in the past, usually derived from plant materials such as indigo or madder root, but also made from amalgams of materials such as walnut husks and iron filing.
Turkoman: Refers to a rug from the Turkistan region. Their patterns are made of repeated guls that are unique to each tribe.
Vagireh (Persian; also wagireh): Sometimes called a «sampler», this type of small commercial rug usually woven in Iran has a variety of border and field ornaments arbitrarily woven to resemble ornaments in larger carpets.
Warp: Horizontal or vertical structural elements attached to the two end beams of a loom, upon which a rug is woven by adding weft and pile.
Weft (also woof): The widthwise or horizontal structural element of a rug, passed over and under the warps, forming part of the basic foundation of a pile rug and the design of a flat-weave rug.
Yastik (Turkish word for «cushion»): A small rug, usually woven with a knotted pile, which measures about 18 by 36 inches (46 by 91cm).