pillow sham
1
4.7
- noun
- /ˈpɪloʊ ʃæm/
:
funda decorativa
- Oh, I need new pillow shams for my bedroom.
- pillow shams and duvets
- ruffled pillow shams
- linen pillow shams
Examples
-
Beds are heaped high with glorious linens, buttoned pillow shams, and duvet covers.
-
The next week, I decided to launder the bedspread and pillow shams.
Fiction book (2001) -
Before using anything, we pre-washed in cold water and hung dry the mattress cover, sheet set, duvet cover, and pillow shams.
Blog text (17) -
As Laney tugged off Sam's shirt, David noticed with embarrassment the gold and blue patterns of the sheets, pillow shams, and scatter cushions that crowded the bed.
Fiction book (2000) -
The king-sized bed was covered by a ripply white silk spread with matching pillow shams.
How Decorative
Surface Forms
Morphology
pillow + sham
The sense 'decorative cover' is not directly predictable from 'pillow' plus 'sham' because 'sham' is polysemous and commonly means 'fake' or is a specialized householdware term; a B1 learner who knows only the basic senses of the constituents would not infer 'decorative pillow cover'. The lexicalized, domain-specific use of 'sham' for bedding makes this meaning idiomatic rather than transparently compositional.
Etymology
Pillow sham comes from the word sham, which means 'fake' or 'imitation'. A pillow sham is a decorative cover that makes a pillow look nice but is not the real sleeping surface, so the name shows it is used for decoration.