| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| chesterfield |
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| SYLLABICATION: | ches·ter·field |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  ch s t r-f ld |
| NOUN: | 1. A single- or double-breasted overcoat, usually with concealed buttons and a velvet collar. 2. Chiefly Northern California & Canada A sofa. | | ETYMOLOGY: | After a 19th-century earl of Chesterfield. | | REGIONAL NOTE: | Chesterfield, a term for a sofa, especially a large one with upholstered arms, was probably brought down from Canada, where it is common. In the United States, it was largely limited to the trade region of San Francisco in northern California. According to Craig M. Carver in American Regional Dialects, the word probably comes from the name of a 19th-century earl of Chesterfield and originally referred “specifically to a couch with upright armrests at either end.” It appears to have come into use in Canada around 1903 and in northern California at about the same time.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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