What do you call this?

[catnapper]

Hee hee.... just a silly little thing thats been tripping me up at work.

All my life, I've called this a couch:
http://www.la-z-boy.com/images/products/glamour/sleepers/255_queensleeper.jpg

Now at work, I have to call it a "sofa" to customers, because the thought is that saying "couch" can have a negative impression on people (as in "couch potato")

Soooo.... what do you all call this piece of furniture and would you think "couch" is a negative word? I will retrain my brain to call it a sofa, but its HARD, after 30-some years of calling it a couch :p

Photo borrowed from LA-Z-Boy's website, here's a link: La-Z-Boy (http://www.la-z-boy.com/ourfurniture/product.aspx?pid=181)
I used that particular couch.... errr.... sofa because its called the Cameron :) :D

[sirrahbed]

That is a couch to me. :D

[sirrahbed]

That is a couch to me. :D

A sofa is what my New York grandmother had in her parlor.

[kimlovescats]

It's a couch to me, also! ;)

[TFTpwnsYou]

Either a couch or a dog/cat bed. I don't think couch is negative. I think happy thoughts when I hear it cause that's where me and the animals cuddle up. :)

[gemini9961]

Couch here too, never been a sofa for me either.

[Pembroke_Corgi]

I say couch and sofa, although I've also heard people call them "davenports."

[sirrahved]

I say couch and sofa, although I've also heard people call them "davenports."

My grandma and grandpa call it a davenport. To me though, it looks like a nice, comfy couch!

[Daisy and Delilah]

It's a couch to me too. Always has been, always will be.

If people are offended by this, I shudder to think what this world has come to. I have to wonder if people this touchy are carrying giant guilt complexes on their shoulders. The world needs to lighten up and have a sense of humor. If you can't laugh, what can you do? :D

[Vela]

I call mine a couch, but salespeople call them sofas because it sounds more "rich" and proper. It's really just a play on words, sofa is more proper while couch is "slang", at least on sales floor.

[DrKym]

It is a nap place!
We call it a couch, altough my father in law calls them davenports also :confused: Maybe it is a Kansas thing? I never heard them called that, although a SOFA is what you are not allowed to sit on until you are 30 in when we were growing up. It was what the adults sat on :eek: (looked like a white couch to us!)

[BC_MoM]

I call that a chesterfield!

[Twisterdog]

I call it a couch.

My parents called it a couch, and we had a big, ugly orange and white velveteen one growing up, that all our friends and us sat on, jumped on the cushions and watched TV on.

However, my grandparents did not have a "couch" they had a "sofa" or a "davenport". We would no more have sat on those things than we would have thrown oatmeal on the carpet.

Perhaps it's a level of formality, perhaps it's generational.

[Killearn Kitties]

I would call it a couch, sofa, or settee. I don't think of one word as being more up-market than another, but sales people will always try to avoid negative connotations.

[Freckles]

Davenport.

[Pam]

Maybe it is a regional thing or a generational thing. I call it a sofa but my mother (quite elderly) would call it a davenport.

[Randi]

I would call it a sofa here, but probably a couch in USA. I actually thought couch was the translation of sofa. I think more British people would say settee.

Actually, I wonder where the word sofa originates from - I haven't checked.

This is a Chesterfield:
http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=img&cs=iso88591&q=chesterfield&rys=0&itag=crv&_sb_lang=pref

[kuhio98]

I say couch and sofa, although I've also heard people call them "davenports."Bobcat does that. Davenports or Divan - "A long backless sofa, especially one set with pillows against a wall." It's such an old-fashioned word. I'd call it a couch. No, I don't think it has a negative connotation.

[Randi]

I just HAD to go and look for a Divan too. LOL!

Here are a few:
http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=img&cs=iso88591&q=divan&rys=0&itag=crv&_sb_lang=pref

[Zippy]

I say couch and sofa.It depends on who I am talking too.

[Miss Z]

I would call that a settee, although apparantly there are differences between a 'sofa' and a settee.

[Craftlady]

Davenport, Couch, Sofa all three names I've used. Davenport maybe a generation thing but then again I'm NOT old. :D and call a couch a davenport. I'm also from NE Ohio not sure it's a regional thing.
If I was going into a store, I would call it a sofa to the sales person since that seems to get the point across what your looking to buy.

[lizbud]

I would call it a couch, although I am aware stores refer to them as sofas.

[gemini9961]

Like I said before it's a couch to me. I have never heard of it being called a Davenport or the other names mentioned. Anything I sit my butt down on after a long day or to watch TV is a couch, unless of course it's a chair. :D

On a side note, I had no idea there were so many different names. I use couch and have heard sofa but that's all.

[Lilith Cherry]

I found the following by googling; I call it a sofa but I grew up in England.

"The art of reclining.


Dear Word Detective: During my youth, a sofa or couch was referred to as a "settee." Where did "sofa" and "couch" originate? It was also referred to as a "davenport," but I don't know where that came from either. -- B.L. Dockery, via the internet.

Well, that's why you have me, isn't it? Incidentally, this striking multiplicity of names for one humble piece of furniture bolsters (yuk, yuk) my contention that humanity's true destiny lies not in endless striving, but in relaxation. Tomorrow the stars, yeah, maybe, but for now I'm just going to put my feet up and read a book.

All of the words you mention refer to the common sort of long upholstered seat or bench, usually with a back and arms, usually found in the living room or parlor. "Settee," the term you remember from your youth, appeared in English around 1716, probably as a fanciful variant of "settle." Although today we are most familiar with "settle" as a verb, it started out as a noun meaning "a sitting place" (from the prehistoric German "setlaz," meaning "seat").

A "couch" was originally a bed or other furniture designed for sleeping, not just sitting, and takes its name from the French "coucher," meaning "to lay in place" (ultimately from the Latin "collocare" meaning "to put together"). "Couch" in its modern sense appeared around 1430. By the way, the verb "to couch," meaning to "to express in words" comes from the root "put together" sense of couch.

"Sofa," which appeared in English around 1625, comes directly from the Arabic "soffah," meaning a raised portion of the floor covered with cushions and carpets for sitting. By about 1717, "sofa" was being used to mean a separate piece of furniture designed for sitting. Another term from the Middle East, "divan" (from the Persian "devan") originally meant "council of rulers," but later in English came to mean the padded platform upon which the rulers sat, and eventually was used as a synonym for "couch."

Compared to all those exotic origins, "davenport," which appeared around 1897, is pretty prosaic, though its origin is mysterious. The accepted theory is simply that at some point there was a Davenport Company that produced a popular line of sofas. "


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[jazzcat]

I've used both but I think sofa sounds nicer than couch.

[Christmas_Hamster]

Couch. I have heard of sofa but not davenport and setee(sp?)

I don't think couch sounds negative it sounds relaxing. If that insults people what it our world coming to?

[chocolatepuppy]

It's couch here. ;) I can remember my MIL calling hers a davenport though. I seldom hear people call it a sofa.

[krazyaboutkatz]

I'd call it a couch or a sofa but I usually use the word couch.:)

[Laura's Babies]

I grew up in Virginia and we always called them sofa's.. I still call it a sofa but I know when a person says couch, what it means and am NOT offended! :rolleyes:

What in the world is this world coming to when there is a problem with saying sofa/couch! Yes, I take naps on mine so I guess that means it is a couch?

[critter crazy]

definitely a Couch!! Besides there is nothing wrong with being a Couch potatoe!:D

[Laura's Babies]

I grew up in Virginia and we always called them sofa's.. I still call it a sofa but I know when a person says couch, what it means and am NOT offended! :rolleyes:

What in the world is this world coming to when there is a problem with saying sofa/couch! Yes, I take naps on mine so I guess that means it is a couch?

[Riptide]

Are you allowed to say potato? Or will it hurt the other veggies' feelings?

Anyway, I call it a sofa :)

[AbbyMom]

When I was real little, I called it a davenport like my parents did. (We're originally from NW Ohio.)

But when we moved, the other kids made fun of me because they didn't know what it was. Neither did my teacher. I quickly learned to use sofa instead.

[jenluckenbach]

Are you allowed to say potato? Or will it hurt the other veggies' feelings?

:)
ROTFLOL

I use either word.

[Daisy and Delilah]

Are you allowed to say potato? Or will it hurt the other veggies' feelings?

Anyway, I call it a sofa :)

lol lol lol That is just hilarious :D :D :D Good one!!

[Lady's Human]

Sofa or couch, pretty much interchangable terms.

In our house it's more commonly referred to as Lady's bed. :p

[borzoimom]

Well - here sofa means more uh elegant and couch is like a family room more casual.. Like I have 6 couchs, but one sofa.. ... lol..

[Rachel]

I say couch and sofa, although I've also heard people call them "davenports."


I use all three of these words, but probably couch and sofa more than davenport.

[BitsyNaceyDog]

I call it a couch.
My grandma in upstate New York calls it a davenport.

[Cataholic]

Who CARES what you call it, what I want to know is whether it answers you back?????


I am kind of funny today, aren't I? :D

[sparks19]

It's a couch :D

[Suki Wingy]

that is a couch!

[cassiesmom]

It's a sofa. Either it's going in the front room (which people not from Chicago call a living room) or the family room (formerly known as the den). Unless it only seats two people, and then it's a love seat. I like it, by the way and I need a new one in the worst way - I will have to find out if there's a Laz-boy store in Chicagoland.

[GreyhoundGirl]

divan. Just one of those words that didn't need to be translated. :p

[Crikit]

That would be a couch or a chesterfield to me. It would all depend on what type of mood I am in at the moment.

[LoudLou]

"couch" can have a negative impression on people????

What about "Sofa Surfing"?
A phrase that among musicians tends to be mean, "No place to live, no real job, no money" etc. I've known many Sofa Surfers. :D

[Tollers-n-Dobes]

I also call it a couch - never anything else.

[cmayer31]

Looks like a couch to me. :) I don't think I've ever used the word sofa even though I've heard it used.