sofa

Etymology

It is borrowed from Turkish sofa,^[2][3][4][5] partly through French sofa,^[5][6][7][8] from Arabic صُفَّة (ṣuffa, “bench, ledge, dais, couch”).^{[5][9][10][3]} The OED, revising the entry in 2025, notes that in Ottoman Turkish the word meant a raised part of the floor used for sitting, and later an anteroom, a hall or a couch, and that the French word, recorded in Middle French from 1519, carried it into other European languages.^[5] Nişanyan finds the Turkish word in a text of 1377.^[11] The AHD traces the Arabic noun to an Aramaic word for a mat,^[9] and Skeat connected it with an Arabic root meaning "to draw up in a line".^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Middle East, a raised part of a floor, covered with carpets and cushions, for sitting or reclining: 1625, in Samuel Purchas's Pilgrimes.^[5][10][13] Etymonline dates it to the 1620s.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The European piece of furniture, a long upholstered seat with a back, is first recorded shortly before 1712 in the OED,^[5] and in 1717 according to Etymonline and Barnhart.^[2][10] Hoad places the first sense in the 17th century and the couch in the 18th.^[14] Johnson (1755), who believed it "an eastern word", still defined it as a splendid seat covered with carpets.^[15] Sterne used it figuratively in 1768,^[5] and sofa bed, a sofa that can be used as a bed, is attested by 1794.^[2]

Timeline

• 1377 – the word in Old Anatolian Turkish.^[11][5]
• 1519 – Middle French soffa.^[5]
• 1625 – a raised, cushioned part of the floor (Purchas).^[5][10]
• before 1712 – an upholstered seat for several people.^[5]
• 1717 – the same sense, in Etymonline and Barnhart.^[2][10]
• 1768 – figurative use (Sterne).^[5]
• 1794 – sofa bed.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A long upholstered seat with a back and usually arms, for two or more people; a couch or settee.
2. (historical) In the Middle East, a raised section of floor covered with carpets and cushions for sitting on; a divan.

Word family

• sofa table
• sofa bed

Related words

• divan
• ottoman
• settee
• couch

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b Nişanyan, Sevan, Nişanyan Sözlük: Çağdaş Türkçenin Etimolojisi (online edition)
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.