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My mattress has an embossed pattern which gets imprinted into my skin now and then, making for some funny reactions the next morning when I see myself in the mirror.
Today was one of those mornings, and I thought:

Maybe buying a patterned mattress was not that good of an idea after all.

But I couldn't quite verbalize it, because I didn't know what word to use to mean "patterned" in Spanish.

While writing this question I thought of "patroneado", but the DLE says patronear means to act as the skipper/captain of a ship, nothing to do with a pattern, so...

Any ideas?

EDIT to address some comments: yes, in this specific case it was a "patrón con relieve", but the word I couldn't come up with was just "patterned" (be it embossed or not), so answers meaning just "que tiene un patrón" are OK too. Of course it would be great if there's a word for "con un patrón que además tiene un pequeño relieve".

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  • He escuchado que se usa la palabra marcado. Ejemplo: El sol le dejó marcado los brazos No lo coloco como una respuesta ya que no tengo evidencia de ello (puede que sea algo que se dió en determinada situación). Jun 14, 2018 at 18:17
  • Consider using a mattress pad!
    – Jim Mack
    Jun 14, 2018 at 19:59
  • 100% sure that you mean "colchón con relieve" as SJuan76 said, but he offered too many extra confusing definitions. I can guarantee that there is not literal translation of patterned in Spanish as an adjective. It does not exist! Jun 15, 2018 at 3:12

5 Answers 5

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Given that it seems that you are talking about "pressure marks" and not about "ink/pigment painting my skin"1 I would say:

"En relieve"/"Con relieve" (I would chose the later)

Relieve

  1. m. Labor o figura que resalta sobre el plano.

Of course, given that it is a mattress and people are expected to be on top of it in a relaxed position, I would risk saying that probably the height of the pattern is rather small, so maybe you can also use

"Con bajorelieve"

Bajorelieve

  1. m. Esc. Relieve en que las figuras resaltan poco del plano.

which although gives a more exact idea about your mattress, has the issue of being a term mostly used to esculpture.

Another word in the same field could be

"Repujado"

Repujar

  1. tr. Labrar a martillo chapas metálicas, de modo que en una de sus caras resulten figuras de relieve, o hacerlas resaltar en cuero u otra materia adecuada.

which in popular use has a broader meaning

El repujado es una técnica artesanal que consiste en trabajar planchas de metal, cuero u otros materiales maleables, para obtener una figura ornamental en relieve.

and coincidentally enough, the Wikipedia page includes this image as "Cartelina repujada" which is also used in the English Wikipedia as an example of "Paper embossing".

Although I would say that, it being applied to works on leather, maybe "repujado" could apply also to your face after you have sleep on that mattress, although with an ironic/humoristic connotation :-D.


1Not completely sure here, but I think "embossed" points the former. Please correct me if wrong.

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I think the closest I can think of is estampado:

estampado, da

Del part. de estampar.
  1. adj. Dicho de un tejido: Que tiene estampados a fuego o en frío, con colores o sin ellos, diferentes labores o dibujos. U. t. c. s.

In fact, after looking for this word I realized that this is the translation Google Translator offers for patterned.

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    Not bad, but I would associate estampado more with colours than with forms.
    – SJuan76
    Jun 14, 2018 at 12:38
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    I'm not sure I agree, I've heard and used "estampado" many times when referring to a pattern. Jun 14, 2018 at 18:00
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    for this case i don't think "estampado" would be the correct answer, as "estampado" is for things with stamps on it.
    – Mike
    Jun 14, 2018 at 19:34
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In some cases, when patterned means "made up of elements in a regular arrangement", you can say embaldosado, adoquinado, teselado or enlosado, that is, tiling.

It is not a literal translation, but includes the idea that there is a figure that repeats and distributes regularly until a surface is filled.

Un colchón con diseño embaldosado.

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I don't think in spanish there's a complete translation for "patterned", when it comes to spanish we are more specific about the types of patterns and not just patterns.

Because the word pattern is closer to be just a concept than a form or an idea.

If we want to refer that somethings has a pattern on it, you would say it just like that along with the type of pattern"

"Con un patrón de relieves"
"Con un patrón de colores"

If you would say the patterned mattress in spanish you would say something like

"El colchón con patrones"

This doesn't really makes much sense even with a context

but:

"El colchón texturizado/Con Relieve/estampado"

Would make more sense, but these three translations have a completely different meanings

so I cannot generalize an answer, you would need to be more specific when you translate that to spanish

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I think the word that will be the most helpful when talking (in most contexts) about the concept of a pattern, expressed in English, will be

figuras

Strictly speaking one would need to convey the three-dimensionality, but in practice, within your context, this would not be necessary. So, your sentence could be functionally translated as

Quizás no fue tan buena idea comprar un colchón con figuras.

For example, when you are buying fabric, if it has a pattern, we say, "Tiene figuras," or else we specify exactly what sort of pattern it has, for example, "Tiene florecitas." It's clear from the context that the figuras (generally) or the little flowers (or the little triangles, or what have you) are repeated.

[Patterning, in scientific contexts, can be challenging to translate (see examples at linguee.com). I feel rather relieved you didn't ask about that!]

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