Plural of saddle: a cushioned seat placed on a horse's back for riding, or anything that fits over or across something with a similar shape.
From Old English 'sadol,' related to Germanic languages, dating back to at least 500 CE. The word is ancient because saddles themselves are ancient—humans have been riding horses for thousands of years.
Saddles revolutionized warfare and travel—a good saddle let you ride for days without injury, and the stirrup (added to saddles around 500 CE) was so important that it's sometimes credited with helping build European feudalism.
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