Settee or Sofa ?

spark240

What do you call it...and why is it named either ?

 I could Google it but its more fun asking here ;-)

EricTheWeary

Couch.

Ha, no I grew up saying settee although the word seems to be disappearing. 

ICBM

Sofa

I have no idea of the origin of either word, although I'm guessing that settee is probably British Raj going by its similarity to other such words.

CeeJay

It's a couch in our house, although it was a settee when I was up North in my childhood days.

thumpingrug

Isn't it something to do with which room in the house the particular piece of furniture is in that determine what its called.  Sofa's go in drawing rooms,  settees go in front rooms.  

Dominic

It depends whether you have a Drawing Room ,a Lounge or a " Front room "

Perdix

Wife(from Surrey) calls it sofa I (Leicester) call it settee. Much to here annoyance.

ICBM

thumpingrug said:

Isn't it something to do with which room in the house the particular piece of furniture is in that determine what its called.  Sofa's go in drawing rooms,  settees go in front rooms.

My parents had a 'drawing room', but our sofa is in the living room.

robgilmo

This is a setee,



And this is a sofa.

spark240

And why is it called a Drawing room?....just in case you didn't know.....it's where the " Ladies " used to withdraw to after dinner and leave the gents to drink and smoke.

kaypeejay

So, what would you put in the back parlour?

Emp_Fab

Oh God.... it's Center Parcs all over again....

EricTheWeary

ICBM said:

Sofa

I have no idea of the origin of either word, although I'm guessing that settee is probably British Raj going by its similarity to other such words.

Settee is old English, sofa is Arabic, couch is French ( Wikipedia ). Apparently Chesterfield gets used in Canada although a Chesterfield is a specific type of sofa/ settee/couch here. 

Iamnobody

Settee

fields5069

It’s 2 different things, I think. A settee is a formal uncomfortable thing for visitors. A sofa is for curry stains and dog hair. 

Grunfeld

Settee.

But I don't have one.  They take up too much space.

fob

Settee

When I was a young kid we used to sing the hymn Lord Of The Dance at school. I genuinely thought the lyric was:

Dance then, wherever you may be

I am the Lord of the dance settee

I pictured Jesus and the disciples bouncing up and down on a massive settee in time to that rather jolly hymn.

Fretwired

robgilmo said:

This is a setee,



And this is a sofa.

This is the correct answer.

A setee is, in essence, a chair for two people. The padding is stiff and you sit upright. A setee would normally be found in a drawing-room.

The sofa is a modern creation - the padding is soft with cushions and it became popular in the age of the TV as people could slouch, lie down or cuddle their partner whilst watching TV.

thumpingrug

Fretwired said:

robgilmo said:

This is a setee,



And this is a sofa.

This is the correct answer.

A setee is, in essence, a chair for two people. The padding is stiff and you sit upright. A setee would normally be found in a drawing-room.

The sofa is a modern creation - the padding is soft with cushions and it became popular in the age of the TV as people could slouch, lie down or cuddle their partner whilst watching TV.

I was close then.

DiscoStu

Davenport.

JerkMoans

Chesterfield