When referring to gym type of shoes, what do you call them? I usually call them sneakers, or just shoes. Recently when I said something about sneakers in a conversation with a friend, he responded, ‘How much sneaking do you do to have to get special shoes for it?’ He calls his gym shoes, tennis shoes, to which I responded, “and since when have you played tennis?”
my dirty sneakers
Tennis Shoes
This also sparked off a debate over why someone calls them one vs the other. One work mate suspects that if you are a sporting person you refer to them as sneakers where someone who never wears gym shoes for athletic purposes says tennis shoes. He says it goes back to tennis shoes being a type of sneaker.
Sneakers
Conclusion – most of my coworkers do not take part in sports.
Sneakers vs tennis shoes, quickly led to a conversation about chesterfields. This arose when a tennis shoes wearer said he has a chesterfield, bringing on the first question, what the heck is a chesterfield? Turns out it’s a couch, or sofa, depending on your choice of wording. Another quick pole was run, and couch came out the clear winner with 11 couches, 1 sofa, one person slit between couch and sofa equally and 1 chesterfield.
I bet this was made in China
Another google search was run and it turns out that a couch is a type of sofa, but both names are currently used to describe the modern living room stuffed bench type of seating.
“The traditional meaning of couch is a particular type of sofa with a half back and one raised end.” We also found references to a couch for laying down and a sofa for sitting. So what about when you are lounging in not quite a sit or a laying position? Maybe that’s when you have a chesterfield.
All Things Krista 