It is a fact that sofas have a long and colorful history, and are illustrative of how a simple piece of furniture can become so integral to modern day life. For many people, the sofa ranks in importance just below their bed. In fact, people probably spend more time on a couch or sofa than just about anything else. A good sofa provides a great deal of comfort and style these days.
Couches and sofas come in a great many styles, fabrics, coverings and shapes. There are so many different versions that people sometimes can become overwhelmed when they go out to purchase one. The modern sofa, though, has its early origin among the French, who gave their version of it the name ‘coucher, ‘ which means to lay down or recline. Surprisingly, the French refer to their sofas as canapes.
Of course, that particular word means something entirely different in English. It was probably in 1450 that English craftsmen developed their own version of a sofa that they referred to as a ‘couch, ‘ probably because they couldn’t pronounce the French word for it. ‘Sofa’ as a word did not yet have a place in English, though today couch and sofa are fairly interchangeable as words in English.
In the 17th century, people in Europe began to become fascinated with the idea of traveling to the Orient and experiencing that particular world. Those who came back also brought back the Arabic word for what we think of as the sofa, only they called it a ’suffah’ (soo-fah). This particular kind of sofa actually was a reclining bench that was fairly long. Men would sit on it and drink coffee regularly.
As a item of furniture, the suffah had been around for thousands of years. Ancient Greek and Roman males would sit on their version of the sofa and eat their dinner or just take your ease. It wasn’t the case for women, though, who were forbidden to sit or recline on a sofa. They had to make do with eating their dinner or taking a break while sitting on a Greek or Roman chair.