Topic summary
Tuffet
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Little Miss Muffet.
Tuffet
Although the word tuffet is now sometimes used to mean a type of low seat, the word in the rhyme probably originally referred to a grassy hillock, small knoll or mound (a variant spelling of an obsolete and rare meaning of "tuft"). The Oxford English Dictionary calls the "hassock or footstool" meaning "doubtful", and "perhaps due to misunderstanding of the nursery rhyme". Many modern dictionaries including Collins, Merriam-Webster, Chambers 21st Century Dictionary and Oxford Dictionaries, however, now give both meanings.