What is an eiderdown? (I was listening to some early Pink Floyd, and this word is mentioned two or three times.)
by 
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
ANSWERS: 5
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bed cover or quilt made from duck or goose feathers
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An eiderdown is a soft lightweight clothing fabric knitted or woven and napped on one or both sides. or a soft quilt usually filled with the down of the eider.
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A thick quilted bed covering filled with the down (small feathers) of the Eider disk. The Eider duck, which lives in very cold areas such as Iceland, had very fine and warm down which it pulls out to insulate its nest and protect its chicks. At the end of the nesting season, people climb town the cliffs to recover the down to make superlatively light and fluffy bed coverings. Actually, that is what an eiderdown ought to be, and where the name came from. In practice, true eiderdowns are very expensive indeed, and the name spread to coverings filled with inferior feathers. Unlike a duvet, an eiderdown is intended to go over sheets and blankets, and there for only fits the bed rather than being designed to drape over the sides.
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A duvet, or comforter used on a bed, usually filled with down from an eider duck.
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Eider is a type of duck that has very special heat absorbing feathers but not just any feather. The tiny almost spineless feathers close to a ducks body, the ones you don't see underneath the top feathers, are called down. So eiderdown are those feathers from an eider duck They make superior filling for down comforters and pillows because they are the lightest while keeping in the most heat.
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