divan

Etymology

The word was borrowed from French, which took it from Ottoman Turkish دیوان (divan), itself from Classical Persian دیوان (dēwān), from Middle Persian d(p)ywʾn' (dēwān, "archive, collected writings"), tracing back to Sumerian ? (dub). Compare mattress, borrowed from Arabic (both words come from the Middle East, since lying on padding on the floor was a foreign custom to Europeans). It is a doublet of dewan, douane, and diwaniya.