![\"Sofa](\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/blog\/sofa.gif\")
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The other day I discovered that one French word for sofa is canap\u00e9<\/strong> (\/kanape\/), and that canap\u00e9-lit<\/strong> or canap\u00e9 transformable\/convertible<\/strong> is a sofa bed. The word sofa<\/strong> is also used in French, and canap\u00e9<\/strong> can also mean an open sandwich.<\/p>\n According to the OED<\/a>, in English canap\u00e9 (\/\u02c8k\u00e6n\u0259p\u026a\/) can mean both “A piece of bread or toast, etc., on which small savouries are served.” and “A sofa”. I’ve never come across it used to mean sofa in English, and had always assumed that canap\u00e9s were small items of food similar to tapas. I think such things are also known as appetisers or hors d’oeuvres.<\/p>\n Canap\u00e9 comes from the Medieval Latin can\u0101p\u0113um<\/em>, from can\u014dp\u0113um<\/em> (mosquito curtains; pavilion, tent, bed), from the Latin c\u014dn\u014dp\u0113um<\/em> (seat with a baldaquin*), from the Ancient Greek \u03ba\u03c9\u03bd\u03c9\u03c0\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bf\u03bd<\/em> (k\u014dn\u014dpeion – an Egyptian bed or couch with mosquito curtains), from \u03ba\u03ac\u03bd\u03c9\u03c8<\/em> (k\u00e1n\u014ds – gnat, mosquito). In English the word came to mean mainly curtain or canopy, which comes from the same root, while in French and other Romance languages its primary meaning became sofa or couch. <\/p>\n Sofa<\/strong><\/a> \/\u02c8s\u0259\u028af\u0259\/ probably arrived via the Turkish sofa<\/em> from the Arabic \u0635\u0641\u0629<\/em> (s\u00faffa – a long seat made of stone or brick).<\/p>\n Settee<\/strong><\/a> \/s\u025b\u02c8ti\u02d0\/ is probably a variant of settle<\/a> \/\u02c8s\u025bt(\u0259)l\/, “a long bench, often with a high back and arms, with storage space underneath for linen.” [source<\/a>]. Settle comes from the Old English setl<\/em>, from the Germanic *setlo-<\/em>, from the pre-Germanic *sedlo-<\/em>, from the Proto-Indo-European *sed-lo-<\/em>, from *sed-<\/em> (to sit).<\/p>\n