portière

Line drawing of a portiere (14th to 15th century).

Look up portière in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A portière is a hanging placed over a door or over the doorless entrance to a room. Its name is derived from the French word for door, porte . From Asia it came to Europe at a remote date. It is known to have been in use in Europe in the 4th century^{[citation needed]}, and was probably introduced much earlier. Like so many other domestic plenishings, it reached England by way of France, where it appears to have been originally called rideau de Porte (literally, "door curtain").

Common in wealthier households during the Victorian era, it is still occasionally used either as an ornament or as a means of mitigating drafts. It is usually of some heavy material, such as velvet, brocade, or plush, and is often fixed upon a brass arm, moving in a socket with the opening and closing of the door.

In Margaret Mitchell's novel, Gone with the Wind, the protagonist Scarlett O'Hara makes a new dress from her mother's green velvet portieres (the scene was famously parodied on The Carol Burnett Show when Carol Burnett, playing the role of Scarlett, wore not only the fabric but the curtain rod as well).

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.