Etymology Inherited from Middle English matte (“mat”), from Old English meatte (“mat”), from Late Latin matta (“mat made of rushes”), from Punic or Phoenician (compare Hebrew מיטה \ מִטָּה (mitá, “bed, couch”)). Cognate with German Matte (“mat”), Danish måtte (“mat”), Faroese and Icelandic motta (“rug, mat”), Norwegian matte (“mat, rug”), Swedish matta (“carpet, rug, mat”).
1
A flat piece of coarse material used for wiping one’s feet, or as a decorative or protective floor covering.
Wipe your feet on the mat before coming in.
2
A small flat piece of material used to protect a surface from anything hot or rough; a coaster.
They put mats on the table during mealtimes.
3
Athletics, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports A floor pad to protect athletes.
The high jumper cleared the bar and landed safely on the mat.
4
A thickly tangled mess.
a mat of weeds
But to return to where we left her, I see her still, propped up in a kind of stupor against one of the walls in which this wretched edifice abounds, her long grey greasy hair framing in its cowl of scrofulous mats a face where pallor, languor, hunger, acne, recent dirt, immemorial chagrin and surplus hair seemed to dispute the mastery.1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
5
A thin layer of woven, non-woven, or knitted fiber that serves as reinforcement to a material.
6
A thin surface layer; superficial cover.
Iceland moss growing in a mat
The fad for blaming all mass extinctions (such as happened at the end of the Cretaceous when the dinosaurs vanished) on impacts of objects from space was extended to the Pleistocene in 2007. That year a group of scientists proposed that the North American extinctions were due to a comet or meteorite impact over the Carolinas, near the beginning of the Younger Dryas event, about 12,900 years ago. The original evidence for this supposed impact was a "black mat" of organic material in many Clovis sites, plus microscopic nano-diamonds in deep-sea cores, and rare Platinum group metals in Greenland ice cores from around 12,900 years ago.2016 November 15, Donald R. Prothero, The Princeton Field Guide to Prehistoric Mammals, page 222:
Etymology Inherited from Middle English matte (“mat”), from Old English meatte (“mat”), from Late Latin matta (“mat made of rushes”), from Punic or Phoenician (compare Hebrew מיטה \ מִטָּה (mitá, “bed, couch”)). Cognate with German Matte (“mat”), Danish måtte (“mat”), Faroese and Icelandic motta (“rug, mat”), Norwegian matte (“mat, rug”), Swedish matta (“carpet, rug, mat”).
1
To cover, protect or decorate with mats.
Be careful now to keep the Doors and Windows of your Conservatories well matted1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], “Kalendarium Hortense: Or, The Gard’ners Almanac; […] ”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:
2
To form a thick, tangled mess; to interweave into, or like, a mat; to entangle.
And o'er his eyebrows hung his matted hair.1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
Alternative Alternative form of matte (“instrument for producing a dull, lustreless surface”).
mat
noun
Etymology From Russian мат (mat), abbreviated from the expression ма́терная брань (máternaja branʹ), ultimately from мать (matʹ, “mother”).
1
Vulgar, obscene, or profane language in Russian and some other Slavic language communities.
Most teenagers go through times when they use mat "rather heavily" among themselves. I guess they associate it with being adults. In most cases though this goes away pretty fast, usually when they start dating girls. Using mat rather heavily after graduating from university is a differnet^([sic]) matter.1991 September 16, Michael Rabinovich, “Profanity in the USSR”, in soc.culture.soviet (Usenet), archived from the original on 15 Aug 2025:
Don't you people have anything better to do than collecting mat. I still can't undestand why people in (and from) the ex-USSR like to swear so much.1993 March 31, Elena Tsifrina, “let's collect MAT”, in soc.culture.soviet (Usenet), archived from the original on 15 Aug 2025:
1 more example
As the Russian mentality (hopefully) will be less medieval, mat will lose its social role. It will be less frequently used in the spoken language. From the other hand, books will lose its medieval sacrality, and mat will be allowed to be printed.1993 June 22, Boris A. Veytsman, “Russian "mat" and Russian mentality”, in talk.politics.soviet (Usenet), archived from the original on 15 Aug 2025: