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Sofas come in a variety of colors, patterns, and materials (two-seater model)

Ancient Greek couch with one elevated armrest

A couch, loveseat, sofa, settee, lounge, davenport or chesterfield are items of furniture for the comfortable seating of more than one person. Compare the joiner's settle, with its separate seat cushions. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... A couch is a piece of furniture for seating of more than one person. ... Photo by Lotushead. From www. ... Photo by Lotushead. From www. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Look up Davenport in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For the UK band, see Furniture (band). ... A Settle is a wooden bench, usually with arms and a high back, long enough to accommodate three or four sitters. ...

Couches are usually to be found in the living room, den or the lounge. They come in a variety of textiles and in leather. A typical couch seats two to three people and has an armrest on either side. Many different types of couches exist; popular types include the divan. the chaise longue, the canapé or the ottoman. Also, to conserve space, some sofas double as beds (sofa-bed, daybed, or futon). A sitting room in the UK. A living room, also known as sitting room (especially in the UK), lounge room or lounge (in the United Kingdom and Australia), is a room for entertaining guests, reading, watching TV or other activities. ... The term lounge can refer to: a living room in a private house, a public waiting area, provided with seating, as in a hotel or airport an Airline lounge is a private waiting area offered by airlines to pecial customers or to those who pay an extra fee lounge music... For other uses, see Textile (disambiguation). ... Modern leather-working tools Leather is a material created through the tanning of hides and skins of animals, primarily cattlehide. ... This article should be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ... A chaise lounge (French long chair) is an upholstered couch in the shape of a chair that is long enough to support the legs. ... An Ottoman in its natural habitat. ... A double bed A bed is a piece of furniture or location primarily used or intended for sleeping upon, but also commonly used for sexual activities, relaxing, sitting, and reading. ... A futon in Japan A futon in the U.S. A futon )   is a type of mattress that makes up a Japanese bed. ...

There are other types, including two-seater, three-seater, corner and chaise longue. A sectional sofa (often just referred to as a "sectional") is formed from multiple sections (typically 2 to 4) and usually includes at least two pieces that join at an angle of 90 degrees or slightly greater. A chaise lounge (French long chair) is an upholstered couch in the shape of a chair that is long enough to support the legs. ...

A three-piece suite is composed of three couch pieces (generally, a two- or three-seater and two armchairs).

History

Mme Récamier, by Jacques-Louis David, 1800: a Greek Revival couch with lyre arm design.

Until the 20th century a couch referred to a long upholstered seat with one end inclined, high enough to provide a back and head-rest. "Couch" which in the Late Middle Ages had signified bedding (from the French se coucher, or "to lie down") was interchangeable with "daybed" through the 17th century. (Gloag, "couch"). Well into the 19th century a couch was particularly a seat for a lady; a fainting couch (a modern term) has a back and a single scrolling upholstered end. A récamier was a late nineteenth-century trade term for a similar single-ended couch, such as the one made famous in David's portrait of Mme Récamier (illustration, right). Image File history File links Download high resolution version (833x568, 40 KB) en:Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Récamier painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1800 Oil on canvas 244 x 75 cm Musee du Louvre, Paris Source: [1], specifically [2] File links The following pages link... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (833x568, 40 KB) en:Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Récamier painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1800 Oil on canvas 244 x 75 cm Musee du Louvre, Paris Source: [1], specifically [2] File links The following pages link... Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Récamier, by Jacques-Louis David, 1800, a portrait which sparked European fashion for Greek attire. ... Jacques-Louis David (August 30, 1748 – December 29, 1825) was a highly influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the prominent painter of the era. ... Personal residence of Catherine the Great Greek Revival was a style of classical architecture which became fashionable in Europe in the 18th century, and in the United Kingdom and United States in the early 19th century. ... American Federal Period sofa with lyre arm design circa 1790 A lyre arm is an element of design in furniture, architecture or the decorative arts, wherein a shape is employed to emulate the geometry of a lyre;[1] the original design of this element is from the Classical Greek period... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Daybeds are used as beds as well as seating areas. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jacques-Louis David (August 30, 1748 – December 29, 1825) was a highly influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the prominent painter of the era. ...

The sopha or sofa had a separate origin. "Sopha" made its entry in written English in 1717 (OED); divan preceded it (1702). Sofa was originally an Arabic word for the raised section of floor, furnished with rugs and cushions, set apart for a council (see Diwan) thus also for especially esteemed guests. Designs for "sophas" in Thomas Chippendale's Director (1754, 1762) all have solidly upholstered arms with padded elbow rests, cushioned seats and upholstered backs, but show their carved wood framing. OED stands for Oxford English Dictionary Office of Enrollment & Discipline This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... A divan is a type of couch-like sitting furniture. ... Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... A provincial Chippendale-style chair with elaborate Gothick tracery back Thomas Chippendale (June 5, 1718 – November 13, 1779), born at Farnley near Otley, West Yorkshire, was a London cabinet-maker and furniture designer in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. ...

Further back in ancient Roman society, the couch was found in the dining room (known as the triclinium). Three couches would be arranged around a low table and the men would recline while eating (although the women sat in normal chairs). In Roman Era dwellings (particularly those of the wealthy), triclinia were standard issue. ...

Originally it was an elitist piece of furniture and it was not until industrialization that the upholstered couch became an indispensable item of furniture in middle and lower class households. Throughout its history it has often been an object of derision, considered a variety of things from decadent to conformist. Elitism is a belief or attitude that an elite — a selected group of persons whose personal abilities, specialized training or other attributes place them at the top of any field (see below) — are the people whose views on a matter are to be taken most seriously, or who are alone... The middle class (or middle classes) comprises a social group once defined by exception as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry. ... A social class is, at its most basic, a group of people that have similar social status. ... The household is the basic unit of analysis in many microeconomic and government models. ... See also Decadent movement Decadence refers to a personal trait and, much more commonly, to a state of society. ... Conformism is a term used to describe the suspension of an individuals self-determined actions or opinions in favor of obedience to the mandates or conventions of ones peer-group, or deference to the imposed norms of a supervening authority. ...

Since 19th Century the couch has become associated with Freudian psychoanalysis. Freud originally used the couch as a tool to aid his hypnosis of the patient. However when he moved on from hypnosis to stream-of-consciousness discourse as his dominant mode of analysis with the development of the interpretation of dreams, he still held on to the couch. He justified this with the need to limit the transference between psychoanalyst and analysand. Thus, the couch proved particularly useful because it limits the visibility of the analyst. Sigmund Freud His famous couch Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. ... pychoanalysis today comprises several interlocking theories concerning the functioning of the mind; the term also refers to a specific type of treatment where the analyst, upon hearing the thoughts of the analysand (analytic patient), formulates and then explains the unconscious bases for the patients symptoms and character problems. ... For the novel by Lucas Hyde, see Hypnosis (novel). ... In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a literary technique which seeks to portray an individuals point of view by giving the written equivalent of the characters thought processes. ... Dream interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to dreams. ... Transference is a phenomenon in psychology characterized by unconscious redirection of feelings for one person to another. ...

Today the couch is invariably linked to both domestic family life and television culture. It is often positioned in relation to the television set in a living room and for napping. It has spawned social phenomena such as the couch potato, a person who spends a lot of time watching the television. The couch has also become the central prop for many TV sitcoms and soap operas. This symbiosis, through which the couch has shifted from the private to the public sphere, has been satirically depicted in popular culture, in television series such as Married... with Children, The Simpsons, The Big Comfy Couch, Friends, and Beavis and Butt-head. This includes joes moms chapel a family of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997 Family is a Western term used to denote a domestic group of people, or a number of domestic groups linked through descent (demonstrated or stipulated) from a common ancestor, marriage or adoption. ... Television set may refer to: Television, a device to display television programs Television studio, an installation in which television or video productions take place Set construction, theatrical scenery This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... For other uses, see Couch potato (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ... The first TIME cover devoted to soap operas: Dated January 12, 1976, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of our Lives are featured with the headline Soap Operas: Sex and suffering in the afternoon. A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television... For other uses, see Symbiosis (disambiguation). ... Married… with Children was a long-running American sitcom about a dysfunctional family living in Chicago. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... The Big Comfy Couch is a Canadian childrens television series about Loonette the Clown and her friends, produced by Cheryl Wagner and Robert Mills and directed by Wayne Moss and Mills. ... For friendship, see friendship. ... Beavis and Butt-head was an American animated television series created by Mike Judge. ...

References

• John Gloag, A Short Dictionary of Furniture rev. ed. 1962. (London: Allen & Unwin)

External links

• Etymology of "sofa"