the.com/sitting room
A living room with better manners and a slightly stiffer cushion.
means A room in a house kept for sitting, receiving guests, and generally being civilized in — functionally the same as a living room, with a slightly more formal accent.
from Simply a compound of 'sitting' (the act of sitting, from Old English sittan) plus 'room,' first used in English to name a room set aside for sitting in, as opposed to bedrooms or kitchens built for other tasks. It rose alongside 'parlour' and 'drawing room' as homes grew enough rooms to specialize, each name describing exactly what happened there — no hidden story, just English doing the sensible, literal thing.
- origin
- British term, favored over American living room
- implication
- suggests guests, not sprawling in pajamas
- older cousin
- parlor, the Victorian ancestor of this room
- irony
- often the least sat-in room in the house