The hamaca — an Antillean bed described in 1535 and recommended to European armies

The hanging bed of the Antilles, set down in engineering detail by a Spanish royal chronicler in 1535: the netted cotton cloth, the henequén cords, the trick of lying across it rather than along it, and the argument that European armies should adopt it because fewer soldiers would sicken and die than by sleeping on the ground. By 1611 the word stood in the Castilian dictionary — with a Hebrew etymology, because the lexicographer did not know it was an American word.