h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm not familiar with 'hassocks' - I don't think I've come across the word. It's quite a nice word though. Hassocks.

A hassock is like a small pouffe. It's small and stuffed and you can put your feet on it.

I thought they were called Ottomans [ottomen?]. There was an entire empire composed of them.

Hassocks are the cushions you kneel on in church (if you do that sort of thing)

In our house the hassock was sometimes called the ottoman. It was the same height as the couch and sometimes used as a stool by the kids.

Just to throw a wrench into the , we also sometimes referred to the couch as a davenport.



F S

So if you're kneeling in a cassock, it's best to use a hassock?

We used to have what we called an Ottoman, but it was more like a long, rectangular box/bench than a footstool sort of thing.

Only in church.

Hassocks a village in Sussex

Hassocks, will need shoes

Yes, an Ottoman was always a storage box cum seat I thought.

Its a couch. Unless it's a sofabed (we have both)

Everyone should know that meals are titled thusly

Breakfast
Elevenses
Luncheon
Afternoon tea
Dinner
Supper.

(Lunch is always midday but midday meal can also be dinner, dinner or tea for evening meal. Supper is what I have once the kids are in bed.)

{Supper is what I have once the kids are in bed.}

Is that what you call it?

We sat on a settee which stood in the lounge. The furniture shop would prefer to sell you a three-piece suite.

We had dinner after the 6 o'clock news. School midday meal could be called lunch or dinner. On Sundays the midday Sunday roast affair could only possibly be called Sunday lunch. And in the summer I took a packed lunch to school. Not a packed dinner.

I don't use the word settee, sofa OR couch these days, although I think if I did use an English word I would revert to settee.

What's the German word? It completely escapes me at the moment.

And Davenport's a town in Iowa. I expect they'd get contrary if you rested your feet on the town.

The German word is either

"Sofa"
"Couch" (honestly!)

Then you can generalise as: "Polstermöbel" "Sitzlandschaft"

And an armchair is a "Sessel".

I remembered Cecil the Armchair ok, but "Sitzlandschaft" is interesting.

Sitzlandschaft reminds me of 'The Land of Counterpane'.

http://www.lnstar.com/mall/literature/rls/LandofCounterpane.htm

Mostly sofa, sometimes settee, never couch

Lunch at dinner-time in my lunch break. Dinner any time after I get home from work but the later it gets, the more likely it is to morph into supper.

Born Wiltshire. Moved to Yorkshire at 10. Banished to London and the northern Home Counties at 21 when most pronunciation stuff was ingrained.

Castle rhymes with hassle. Scone rhymes with stone.

I was born near Bath and it is called Bath which rhymes with Kath because it has only one 'a' in it, just like Kath.

So there.

PP.

*All* your pronunciations line up with mine.

Two more from my idiolect: The ottoman stood at the end of the bed. A sort of upholstered coffee table. My parents insisted in calling the thing you either perched on or put your feet up on a "poo-fay".

And hassocks were usually intricately embroidered by the WI for kneeling on in church.