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

[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).

[pensnest]

I *think* I used to call my possessions sofas (still do, really) but have become accustomes to 'couch' (a word which is beginning to look meaningless after all this repetition) through writing in an American fandom, so I've always thought couch leans towards American and sofa towards British. I'm sure you are right that there is a U word, though! Cheers.

[wenchpixie]

FWIW I definitely think of Sofa as an English thing, but I couldn't tell you why!

[pensnest]

According to somebody, Mitford says 'sofa' is the U word, couches and settees are used by parvenus and upstarts. Huh.