Father's Day for some is spent
reclining on a couch. How many ways can you say couch? I can think
of Couch, Canape, Chesterfield, Divan, Davenport, Loveseat, Sofa,
Sectional, and Settee. Variations include sofa bed and futon.
A couch or sofa is a piece of furniture for seating two or more
persons in the form of a bench, with or without armrests, that is
partly or wholly upholstered, and often fitted with springs and
tailored cushions.
The term 'couch' is used in North America, Australia, and New
Zealand. The term 'sofa' is generally used in the United Kingdom and
Ireland.
The most common types of couches are the loveseat, designed for
seating two persons, and the sofa, with two or more cushion seats. A
sectional sofa, often just referred to as a sectional, is formed
from multiple sections and usually includes at least two pieces that
join at an angle of 90 degrees or slightly greater, used to wrap
around walls or other furniture.
Other couch variants include the divan, the fainting couch (backless
or partial-backed), the canapé is an ornamental 3-seater. To
conserve space, some sofas double as beds in the form of sofa-beds,
daybeds, or futons.
In the United Kingdom, a Chesterfield is a deep buttoned sofa, with
arms and back of the same height. It is usually made from leather
and the term Chesterfield in British English is only applied to this
type of sofa, but others use the term more generically. The first
leather chesterfield sofa, with its distinctive deep buttoned,
quilted leather upholstery and lower seat base, was commissioned by
Phillip Stanhope, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield.
In Canada, the term chesterfield is equivalent to a couch or sofa.
The use of the term has been found to be widespread among older
Canadians, but is vanishing from Canadian English. Northern
California is the only place in the US where chesterfield is a
synonym for couch or sofa.