Does anyone in your family still call a couch a 'davenport'?

[The Straight Story]

More on this and Divan from here (Hmmm, maybe there is a difference...):

In a message dated 2/10/99:<< A couch and sofa are usually upholstered,
overstuffed, with pillows.. A couch would be larger than a sofa....A
davenport would be a large piece of wooden furniture with pillows and
cushions...A divan would be smaller with lots of wood and cushions....a
davenette would be an even daintier piece of furniture....something for a
ladies sitting room... >
>Okay.... What are the differences....sofa, couch, daveno, davenport ?? >

I thought the davenport was the one like our now Futons. I have slept on many
a flat davenport. I remember one couch/davenport in which the bedding was
under the seat portion, you had to pick up the seat (kinda like a chest), pull
the bedding out, then pull the seat portion toward you, and that action would
then drop the back which resulted in a prickly mattress as these covers were
in my experience, a rayon/nylon ruff surface.

http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/OLD-WORDS/1999-02/0918670477

[lizziegrace]

1. My (ex) inlaws do

They're originally from Cleveland.

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. I had a long-dead, Canadian-born uncle....

who always called the couch a davenport. He was the only person I knew who used that term.

My Chicago family always called it the couch. Yet when I purchased a sofabed a few years ago, the place called them sofas. I call it the couch.

[Left Is Write]

23. The correct term for a sofa bed is, of course, "hide-a-bed."

:D

[Aristus]

3. Nobody in my family EVER called it a davenport.

I grew up calling it a sofa. I've picked up my wife's lingo since I got married and now I call it a couch. Same diff. :-)

[huskerlaw]

4. My grandparents did/do

My grandpa did...my grandma still does. They're both from western Nebraska.

[RiffRandell]

5. No, thank god. I cannot disagree with my parents anymore about

materialistic things. I annoy the shit out of my mother by abbreviating certain things when I speak, like I'm going to Pubs. (which is Publix, the grocery, and she gets so pissed,I'm like why does that bother you...and here we go) Sounds lame, but we fight about it.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. No, but the sofa has antimacassars. n/t

[jmm]

7. My great grandmother use to call it a davenport

I always thought it was a genericized trademark after a furniture store.

[AlCzervik]

8. we used to call it a Divan and an ottomen was referred to as a

hassic.

[ChoralScholar]

9. I remember in the movie "Wayne's World"

the arcade guy said (referring to the Wayne's World show)

"It looks like two chimps on a davenport in a basement."

I always wondered what a davenport was.

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. My mother and my grandmother.

:hi:

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. I heard 'divan' a lot when I was a kid

My grandmother said it, and occasionally my mom. They were from Arkansas.

[skygazer]

12. No but my ex's mother calls a stereo a Victrola

And a refrigerator a Frigidaire. Or an icebox.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

13. Usually a couch, once in a while a davenport.

Our English uncle calls it a Chesterfield. We laughed after his last visit with us as we declared, "WE HAVE a CHESTERFIELD!"

He also said he was Peckish, and we hid the kids in the closet. Until he explained that this meant that he was hungry.:)

[prole_for_peace]

14. my grandmother called her sofa "the divan"

according to the definition it wasn't a divan but still...

[Zavulon]

15. No, but my grandmother still has a rotary phone. (NT)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. That was our normal word when I was growing up in Minnesota and

Wisconsin. I didn't know it had another name. Now I tend to say "couch," but my mother still says "davenport."
When we were kids, we used to watch a sitcom called December Bride, and at the end, the announcer would speak the credits over the theme music. When we heard him say "written by Bill Davenport," we thought that was the funniest thing we had ever heard.

My father was from northern Minnesota, near where Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba come together. He and his sisters called cereal "breakfast food," a sexy woman a "glamour puss," and a poor white person a "jackpine savage." I thought these terms were generational until I saw the term "breakfast food" in a novel by Larry Woiwode, who, I believe, is from North Dakota.

[Goblinmonger]

19. That's my original neck of the woods

except on the North Dakota side. I haven't heard "breakfast food" in a LONG time. I love the phrase "glamour puss." My family called it a davenport, but I use coach now. Sometimes sofa.

[Whoa_Nelly]

17. A davenport is a large sofa that can be converted into a bed

A couch is for sitting and relaxing on and is considered informal, while a sofa is pretty much the same as a couch, but often more formal and/or stuffed.

davenport

[MassLiberal]

18. my mother-in-law from Sioux City, Iowa

calls it a davenport. I have always called it a couch (grew up in the Great Commonwealth of Massachusetts).

[Arugula Latte]

20. My grandma did, but she died in '99.

I miss her. :(

on edit: She also called butter or margarine "oleo."

[Ivan Sputnik]

21. I remember Grandma calling it that

She was from upstate New York.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Davenport, Iowa. Were couches manufactured there at one time?

[Left Is Write]

22. No. My dad's mother used to say davenport, but we always said couch.

Even "sofa" feels a little unnatural tom me.