so i lit a fire

[pensnest]

Do you sit on

a couch
a sofa
a settee
something else in the same line (no fair saying 'a chair')?

Do you perceive any difference between these three things? Can you define it?

Comments

[smallhobbit]

Settee I think. And no, to me they're the same item of furniture.

[stellar_dust]

Either a couch or a sofa. That's the plush, well-cushioned, all-over-upholstered item in the living room that has room for three people to sit or one person to stretch out for a nap. I have relatives who would call it a davenport.

A settee might be a little fancier, maybe less plush upholstery, and often only seats two people. A settee might be wicker porch furniture with foam cushions that tie on, or an antique-looking piece with no upholstery on legs/arms and soft cushioning on back and seat that is permanently fastened down (that is, no removable cushions).

A settee might also be called a loveseat in some circumstances, but something that seats two that is upholstered like a couch (see above) could also be called a loveseat.

[sixbeforelunch]

A couch, generally, although occasionally a sofa.

Couches and sofas are the same thing. I’ve hardly ever heard settee used, but my brain insists that it sounds vaguely French and therefore must be fancy.

(I’m American, and while my dialect is a bit of a mixed bag, it’s primarily mid-Atlantic.)

[corvidology]

I would use them interchangeably but I usually use 'couch' and sometime, sofa.

My grandmother used settee all the time but it looked like a couch to me. :D

I had an Australian colleague who called it a 'lounge' and the room it was housed in was the 'lounge room.'

[ephemera]

That is .... a harder question than I expected.

I am currently sitting on an item of furniture that is simultaneously the blue couch, and the squishy sofa, so I think I do use those two more or less interchangeably, but a settee seems to me a bit more formal and upright and fancy?

[sperrywink]

couch. A sofa is usually the same thing, but if it has like recliner seats or anything fancy, it is a couch. A sofa is a simple couch.

A settee is smaller and fancier as indicated above by stellar_dust.

[sporky_rat]

A couch and sofa are similar but not the same, a sofa is a fancier couch, usually seats three to four, depending on the humans. A settee is much fancier, usually lower arms, not nearly as comfy to sit on, and more wood or metal than fabric or leather. A chaise lounge has no arms or very short ones with a long seat and a curved back. I have a settee in my library, a sofa and a couch in the living room, and a chaise lounge in the mudroom.

[wenchpixie]

They're all the same thing to me, although I'd call it a couch - but up here what you call it is very tied to both the region and class that you're (or your people are) from. As we've become more mobile as a society, the class thing is less of an obvious signifier (I suspect the very VERY posh would judge, because they all go to the same boarding schools, but for the more normal amongst us, not so much).

[dine]

usually couch - very rarely sofa and never settee. one of my grandmothers called it a davenport, but that's not common around here as far as I know

[semielliptical]

I use the word couch most often, but also sofa. I don't perceive any difference between the two. Like others, I think of a settee as similar but more dainty and/or fancier.

[twistedchick]

We have an old couch, which does not rise to the level of sofa (newer, better cushions). It seats three. A settee seats one or two, is built more elegantly/delicately and is a more 'polite' piece of furniture. I can't see putting my feet up on one.

[bethctg]

I sit on a couch. I *want* to sit on a sofa because people in books I read as an impressionable youth always had sofas. (I now believe they are the same, tho'.) Settees are fancy museum quality pieces of furniture and not meant to be sat on unless it is a special occasion.

[turlough]

I usually sit on a chair but I do have a sofa in my home :-) Sofa sounds more English to me and couch more American but they're both a cushy, upholstered sort of furniture. A settee I've always imagined as a wooden bench with a wooden back with cushions, either loose or fastened down. Why I think of them like that I've no idea however :-)

[turps]

I've just read through all your comments and they're very interesting, and no doubt don't help at all as there's no consensus

For me, I have a couch and thinking about it, have never heard anyone in this area refer to it as a sofa, though on occasions settee is used.

[manna]

They're all sofas to me.

I think we used settee mostly when I was a kid, interchangeably with sofa. Never couch, though.

I'm shamefully late to this, but I have OPINIONS!

[brandywine28]

To me, these three words are all interchangeable! However, any American under the age of one hundred who uses "settee" with a straight face is almost certainly going to be unforgivably pretentious.