Sofa, settee, chesterfield: many names for shared cushioned seating
A couch—also sofa, settee, chesterfield, or davenport—is cushioned furniture for more than one sitter, often a bench with upholstered arms, springs, and tailored fabric. Living rooms organise conversation and screens around its length. The word sofa reached English from Turkish and Arabic, entering use early in the 18th century.
Couch first meant a piece of furniture for lying or sleeping on, and comes through Middle English from the Old French noun couche. It dominates in North America, Australia, South Africa and Ireland, while Britain and India lean towards sofa and settee. Sofa arrived via Turkish from the Arabic suffah, a ledge or bench, related to Aramaic sippa, a mat, and Nathan Bailey's Dictionarium Britannicum of 1730 described it as an Asian alcove furnished with rich carpets and cushions.
Settee descends from Old English setl, a long high-backed bench with arms, and both sofa and settee entered use early in the 18th century, the settee at first meaning a smaller sofa. Divan, davenport, lounge and canapé can serve as synonyms. Older Canadians call any sofa a chesterfield, though a 1992 survey in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe found the word fading fast.
A loveseat seats two, a sofa more, and a sectional joins two, three or four pieces. Other forms include the backless or partly backed fainting couch and the canapé, an ornamental three-seater, while sofa beds, daybeds and futons save space. Today a chesterfield means a deep-buttoned sofa, usually leather, whose arms and back stand at equal height, and a sofa with two matching chairs is a chesterfield or living-room suite.
Construction combines a frame, usually wood but sometimes steel, plastic or laminated board, with springs beneath padding of foam, down, feathers or fabric, and a covering typically of soft leather, corduroy or linen.
Source: Couch
