tatami

What it means

1. Straw matting, in a standard size, used as a floor covering in Japanese houses.

   Small tools are spread on the tatami: a razor knife, a sprue cutter, curls of emery paper.

   1999, William Gibson, All Tomorrow's Parties (Bridge trilogy; book 3), New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →ISBN, page 2

   1 more example

   Heny Hankovitch, con guítar, / did a short Zen pray, / on his tatami in a relaxed lotos / fixin his mind on nuffin, rose-blue breasts,

   1964, John Berryman, chapter 31, in 77 Dream Songs, New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, page 35

2. A unit of area equal to a standard-sized tatami mat, approximately 1.65 square metres.

In a sentence

Heny Hankovitch, con guítar, / did a short Zen pray, / on his tatami in a relaxed lotos / fixin his mind on nuffin, rose-blue breasts,

1964, John Berryman, chapter 31, in 77 Dream Songs, New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, page 35

Where it comes from

1. Japanese畳
2. Englishtatami

Borrowed from Japanese 畳 (tatami).