You can also call a living room a lounge, a sitting room, a front room, or a parlor. It's distinguished from other rooms in a house by what it's used for. There's the dining room for eating, the kitchen for cooking, and the bedroom for sleeping.
Drawing room (from withdrawing room) used to be the only correct term, but many upper-middles and uppers feel it's a slightly pretentious name for, say, a small room in an ordinary terrace house — so sitting room has become acceptable.
In Western architecture, a living room, also called a lounge room (Australian English), lounge (British English), sitting room (British English), or drawing room, is a room for relaxing and socializing in a residential house or apartment.
The main room in an American home, the room where people usually sit and do things together like watch television and entertain visitors, is called a living room. The British name for this room, sitting room, sounds rather quaint and old-fashioned to American ears.
You can also call a living room a lounge, a sitting room, a front room, or a parlor. It's distinguished from other rooms in a house by what it's used for. There's the dining room for eating, the kitchen for cooking, and the bedroom for sleeping.
During the Victorian era, the parlor was the front room of every middle and high-class homes and for some, used exclusively to receive and entertain guest and for others, used as an environment for family intimacy.
A formal living space, which is sometimes called a 'drawing room' is an elegant place to receive guests, while an informal living room is primarily for relaxing with family members. Let's explore how these two spaces differ and why you might choose one or the other.
Lounge by a middle aged demographic and living room by a younger one. Sitting room is probably the poshest name. Large country houses and the gentry may use the term Drawing Room, but the use of Drawing Room in an ordinary house would look pretentious.
The Modern “Living Room”
It's usually the main place of activity in a household aside from the kitchen and is usually much larger than a sitting room. Living rooms are often furnished with one or two sofas and an armchair if the space is available.
'Previously it was often called the parlour or drawing room, while up until the mid-1600s, it was known as the hall. '
Parlor remained the common usage in North America into the early 20th century. In French usage the word salon, previously designating a state room, began to be used for a drawing room in the early part of the 19th century, reflecting the salon social gatherings that had become popular in the preceding decades.
Actually, we've gone through quite a few different names for the living room since the Middle Ages. In medieval times, the large room in which the well-to-do lived was known as the “hall.” It was the central (and often the only) gathering place for the family. It wasn't furnished in the conventional sense.
Is a Settee Posher Than a Sofa? In today's climate, there isn't a class divide over who uses which word. But back in the 1950s, if you sat on a sofa, you were seen as more upper middle class, whereas the middle class and below would relax on a couch or settee.
A den in a house is a room typically used as a secondary living space or office. It is often a smaller, cozier room than the primary living space and can function as a library, home movie theater, or any number of other recreation spaces.
Mansion: a very large, luxurious house, typically associated with exceptional wealth or aristocracy, usually of more than one story, on a very large block of land or estate.
A great room is a room inside a house that combines the roles of several more traditional rooms such as the family room, living room, and study into one space. Great rooms typically have raised ceilings and are usually placed at or near the center of the home.
For example, the word 'lounge' is a no-no for the upper classes, 'dinner' is the preferred term for the evening meal, and 'napkin' is better than 'serviette'.
The term “living room” came from an issue of the Ladies Home Journal that suggested moving past the sadness and difficulty of the time and getting back to having fun and getting together. It was suggested that these spaces be used and lived in, instead of being reserved for fancy occasions.
Today the word “parlor” has largely fallen out of common parlance, but in the 19th century, it was widely used as many people had a parlor in their home.
A timeless living room effortlessly combines comfort, function, and style, creating a space that feels both classic and current. By carefully selecting key furniture pieces, you can craft a sophisticated yet welcoming environment that never goes out of style.
The estate agent selling a property may call it a living room, but we'd probably either call it the lounge or simply the “front room” depending on what type of house you're living in.
The Privy. A privy was basically an unlined cesspool in the ground with a wooden hut built over it. A wooden shelf stretched across, with a nice, bottom sized hole in the middle. You sat here and did your business, with your waste dropping down into the hole.
great hall, main apartment in a medieval manor house, monastery, or college, in which meals were taken. In large manor houses it also served other purposes: justice was administered there, entertainments given, and often at night the floor was strewn with rushes so that many of the servants could sleep there.