Moquette is a thick, soft, hard-wearing cloth with a short pile, used to cover seats and sometimes floors — the kind of fabric you sit on in an old bus, a train, or a heavy sofa. It is made to take years of use, so it is denser and tougher than pretty cushion cloth, and it often looks ribbed or a little like velvet. The word came in from French and still feels a bit specialist: furniture people and transport people name it; most of us just sit on it and never learn the word. Though actually, once you know it, you start seeing it on public seats everywhere. It is not a dress velvet, and it is not a sheepskin.