What do you call this?

**BC_MoM** · 02-17-2007, 11:47 AM

I call that a chesterfield!

**Twisterdog** · 02-17-2007, 11:56 AM

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** · 02-17-2007, 11:56 AM

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** · 02-17-2007, 11:58 AM

Davenport.

**Pam** · 02-17-2007, 12:16 PM

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** · 02-17-2007, 12:19 PM

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=...&_sb_lang=pref

**Craftlady** · 02-17-2007, 01:06 PM

Davenport, Couch, Sofa all three names I've used. Davenport maybe a generation thing but then again I'm NOT old.

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** · 02-17-2007, 01:25 PM

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

**gemini9961** · 02-17-2007, 01:27 PM

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.

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** · 02-17-2007, 01:35 PM

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. "

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**jazzcat** · 02-17-2007, 01:50 PM

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

**sparks19** · 02-18-2007, 01:19 PM

It's a couch

**Suki Wingy** · 02-18-2007, 05:37 PM

that is a couch!

**cassiesmom** · 02-18-2007, 08:04 PM

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.