Plural of couch; pieces of furniture for seating multiple people, typically with a back and armrests. Can also be the third-person singular present of the verb 'couch' meaning to express in particular terms.
From Old French 'couche' meaning 'a bed, lair,' derived from 'couchier' meaning 'to lie down,' ultimately from Latin 'collocare' meaning 'to place together.' Originally referred to any place for lying down, but by the 17th century had evolved to mean the specific furniture piece we know today.
The phrase 'couch potato' entered English in the 1970s, combining the furniture with the shape lazy TV watchers supposedly resembled! Interestingly, Freud's famous psychoanalytic couch was actually a gift from a patient - it was an ornate Victorian piece that became so iconic it helped establish the 'lying down while talking to a therapist' stereotype in popular culture.
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