Why does Wikipedia know what a duvet is?

If you want to know officially what a "duvet" is, ask us... or... look up the Swiss-German term “Duvet” in the world's most used and most popular encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

But... how does Wikipedia know for sure? Quite simply: we told it! Because what seems self-evident today, namely being able to read the explanation of the term "duvet" in the German-language Wikipedia, was not possible until a year ago; one searched in vain for a definition of the term "duvet". The only text contribution to this search term was the biography of a certain Jean Duvet, goldsmith, and engraver from the 15th century. Otherwise: absolute emptiness.

Sandro Corpina, inventor and co-founder of duvetsuisse.com, said to himself: `This simply can't be’. Without further ado, he decided to join the ranks of Wikipedia authors (under the pseudonym "Duvet&Pillow-Expert") to share his vast knowledge about duvets with the people; but above all, he wanted to finally give this wonderful product the place it deserves in the most important reference work of our time!

Trying to assert oneself as a Swiss German on an international platform has its pitfalls. After all, the German-language Wikipedia covers the geographical area of Germany, Austria, and German-speaking Switzerland: truly no easy undertaking. It took some discussion, persuasion, and compromise for the German Wikipedia community to come to terms with the term, which they initially considered "not purely German", and with the whole article in general.

In the end, the decision to keep the article was made by experienced editors of many years' standing, who, considering the term's Swiss roots, acknowledged that it had a right to exist and was of general interest - provided, however, that the High German word "Decke" was placed in parentheses behind it.

And so, at the end of May 2020, the first official entry of the Swiss-German term "Duvet (Decke)" in the German-language Wikipedia came into being.

The Wikipedia community now seems to like the entry quite a bit: since its publication, it has been revised over 50 times by many co-authors and editors.

And the interested public is pleased that they can finally read exactly what the Swiss mean by "Duvet": The article has been accessed over 6,000 times so far, an average of 16 times per day!

On the one-year anniversary of the Swiss-German term "Duvet (Decke)" on the German-language Wikipedia, we would like to express our sincere thanks to the mentors and all the co-authors and editors of Wikipedia. We Swiss-German are proud to be able to call our down duvets not only “Decke” or “Bettdecke” (blankets), but also wholeheartedly "duvet"!

Click here for the article in the German-language Wikipedia on “Duvet”:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duvet_(Decke)