Living Room Sofa And Couch: What’s The Difference?

As a blog all about modern sofas, we’re missing out on a very interesting thing. Clarifying the difference between living room sofa and couch. Do the words really mean the same thing? Where did they come from? Scroll down to discover!

“Couch” comes from the French verb coucher, which means “to lie down”.

“Sofa” originated from the Arabic word “suffah” that refers to a wood or stone bench.

The difference comes from the origins of the words and its connotation. Usually, people refer to a couch as a casual place to lie down and relax, whereas a sofa is often used as a more fancy term.

According to Benjamin Parzybok, author of the novel Couch:

“The couch is the thrash-able object at the center of a well-used living room, upon whose back toddlers straddle, whose cushions teenager become permanent fixtures, and which, at the end of the day, after the children are in bed, a couple might relax with a short glass of bourbon.”

“A sofa, on the other hand, sits under a trimly hung painting and lives in a house in which traffic passes it by. It would be white, of course, or another color begging for stain. And most people living at the house of a sofa would be forbidden to sit upon it at one time or another.”