A thin rectangular piece of fired clay, stone, or other material used to cover surfaces like floors, walls, or roofs.
From Old English 'tigele' and Latin 'tegula,' both meaning 'roof tile,' from 'tegere' (to cover). The shocking connection is that 'tile' shares its root with 'toga' — both come from the same Latin verb meaning 'to cover'! Romans saw roof tiles and togas as serving the same basic function: providing protective covering. The word traveled through Germanic languages before reaching English, but kept its essential meaning of 'something that covers and protects.'
Every time you walk on a tiled floor, you're stepping on linguistic cousins of the Roman toga. Ancient Romans used the same word root for both the tiles that covered their buildings and the cloth that covered their bodies — because in their minds, both were just different ways of providing civilized protection from the elements.
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