Know Your Sofas - By: Ron Jordan

A sofa is a word adapted into English from Arabic, by way of
Aramaic. These days it refers to any couch, though originally it
referred only to the luxuriously cushioned seats of esteemed
guests in the royal palaces of Arabia. Sofas are always
upholstered and designed for reclining and relaxation.

A love seat or loveseat is a small, compact couch that seats
two. Small couches have existed at least as long as large ones,
but the love seat, as we know it, was designed in the 1700's to
seat one woman wearing a wide bustle. As time passed, the little
couches became known as intimate rendezvous spots for lovers
(these were the days of Casanova, remember). Scandalous!
Responding to this, furniture designers crafted love seats as
two connected chairs in an S-shape, with the two sitters facing
in opposite directions. This separated the couple's bodies,
though they were still able to steal kisses if they wished.

The S-shaped love seat remains a stylishly old-school choice,
though its use has diminished due to its large space
requirements. The small couch-style love seat is more common,
though, and is now a standard feature in modern living room
sets. Casanova would be proud.

A davenport originally referred only to a series of sofas
produced by the A.H. Davenport Company of Boston in the
mid-1800's. Due to that company's success in America, the term
has become synonymous with sofas in a large part of the modern
United States, especially in the Midwest. Original Davenport
Company sofas are only found at antique auctions, but if you
call any couch by that name, it's okay.

A settee has recently come to mean any kind of couch, but the
name originally applied only to double-seater benches with
wooden backs and arms, such as those you might find on a porch
or in a hallway. On settees, upholstery can vary; most modern
settees are as cushioned as any couch, but unlike a couch, some
styles of settees feature minimal or absent upholstery.

The word settee is thought to be a variation on settle, though
they are two different things. A settle is a large, heavy
wooden-backed bench of a style used in European castle halls
since medieval times. A settle is typically made entirely of
wood, devoid of upholstery, and thick and heavy thanks to its
development history (they were originally made from wooden
chests). Ah, the luxurious castle life.

A chaise lounge is an upholstered couch designed like a very
long-seated chair which you can stretch your legs on. It comes
from the phrase 'chaise longue', which simply means 'long couch'
in French. This style of sofa has a long history in Europe and
was a standard feature in the manor houses of the aristocracy. A
chaise lounge is typically thought of as a ritzy Rococo-style
design, but these days they are available in a huge variety of
styles, from historical to ultra-modern.

In Victorian England, a chaise lounge was often called a
fainting couch. These items were installed in wealthy houses for
aristocratic women to collapse on, thanks to the stress put on
their bodies by the too-tight corsets of the time. No kidding.

This bizarre trend has not survived into modern times, thank
goodness, but the name lives on. Originally, fainting couches
were simply chaise lounges, though some featured a
non-upholstered foot section which made them more similar to
daybeds. As time has passed, the phrase 'fainting couch' has
expanded to encompass a variety of chaise lounges and beds with
raised headspace. It's more a colloquial term now, since not
many chaise lounge manufacturers include "great for collapsing
unconscious upon" in their ad copy.

A sofa is a word adapted into English from Arabic, by way of
Aramaic. These days it refers to any couch, though originally it
referred only to the luxuriously cushioned seats of esteemed
guests in the royal palaces of Arabia. Sofas are always
upholstered and designed for reclining and relaxation.

For more information and a great variety of sofas,
davenports, settees and lounges, check out href="http://www.everysofa.com">Every Sofa.Com, a proud part
of the Cymax Stores Inc. network of online furniture retailers.
Ron Jordan is a marketing associate for href="http://www.cymaxstores.com/">Cymax Stores Inc., a
premiere online furniture distribution company.