couch potato

English

WOTD – 23 March 2010

Etymology

From couch +‎ potato; coined by Tom Iacino in 1976 as a pun on boob tuber (from boob tube (“television”) and tuber (“potato”)); trademarked by Robert Armstrong from 1976–91.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

couch potato (plural couch potatoes)

1. (idiomatic) A person who spends a lot of time sitting or lying down, often watching television, eating snacks or drinking alcohol. [from 1976]

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:idler.

Derived terms

• desk potato
• mouse potato

Translations

person

• Afrikaans: sofapokkel
• Armenian: մեշոկ (mešok)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 電視迷／电视迷, 电视迷 (diànshìmí)

• Czech: pecivál (cs) m
• Dutch: bankhanger m
• Finnish: sohvaperuna (fi)
• French: avachi (fr), légume (fr), pantouflard (fr), télézard (fr) (Quebec))
• German: Nichtstuer (de) m, Stubenhocker (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Icelandic: sófakartafla f
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: sofagris m
• Polish: kanapowy leń m pers
• Russian: лежебо́ка (ru) m or f (ležebóka), си́день (ru) m (sídenʹ), лентя́й (ru) m (lentjáj), безде́льник (ru) m (bezdélʹnik), домосе́д (ru) m (domoséd)
• Swedish: soffliggare (sv) c, soffpotatis (sv) c

See also

• homebody
• lazy

References

• Allan A. Metcalf, "Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004) →ISBN pp.129-134.