c. 1300, "to spread or lay on a surface, to overlay," from Old French couchier "to lay down, place; go to bed, put to bed," from Latin collocare "to lay, place, station, arrange," from assimilated form of com "with, together" (see com-) + locare "to place," from locus "a place" (see locus).
From late 14c. as "to lie down" (intransitive), also "cause to recline upon a bed or other resting place" (transitive). Meaning "lie hidden" is from 1580s. From 1520s as "to put into words;" hence "include the meaning of a word or statement, express in an obscure or veiled way, imply without distinctly saying" (1560s). Related: Couched; couching.
Heraldic couchant ("lying down with the head up") is late 15c., from the French present participle.
1955, verbal noun from surf (v.). The surfing craze went nationwide in U.S. from California in 1963. Surf-board is from 1826, originally in a Hawaiian and Polynesian context. Surf music attested from 1963.
It is highly amusing to a stranger to go out into the south part of this town, some day when the sea is rolling in heavily over the reef, and to observe there the evolutions and rapid career of a company of surf-players. The sport is so attractive and full of wild excitement to Hawaiians, and withal so healthful, that I cannot but hope it will be many years before civilization shall look it out of countenance, or make it disreputable to indulge in this manly, though it be dangerous, exercise. [the Rev. Henry T. Cheever, "Life in the Sandwich Islands," New York, 1851]
"The basis of surfing music is a rock and roll bass beat figuration, coupled with a raunch-type weird-sounding lead guitar plus wailing saxes. Surfing music has to sound untrained with a certain rough flavor to appeal to the teenagers." [music publisher Murray Wilson, quoted in Billboard, June 29, 1963]
mid-14c., "a bed," from Old French couche "a bed, lair" (12c.), from coucher "to lie down," from Latin collocare (see couch (v.)). From mid-15c. as "a long seat upon which one rests at full length." Traditionally, a couch has the head end only raised, and only half a back; a sofa has both ends raised and a full back; a settee is like a sofa but may be without arms; an ottoman has neither back nor arms, nor has a divan, the distinctive feature of which is that it goes against a wall.
As symbolic of a psychiatric treatment or psychoanalysis, by 1952. Couch potato first recorded 1979.
in couch-grass, 1570s; a corruption of Old English cwice "living, alive" (see quick (adj.)).
"A coward; a nidgit; a scoundrel" [Johnson, who spells it poltron], 1520s, from French poultron "rascal, coward; sluggard" (16c., Modern French poltron), from Italian poltrone "lazy fellow, coward," from poltro "lazy, cowardly," which is apparently from poltro "couch, bed" (compare Milanese polter, Venetian poltrona "couch"), perhaps from a Germanic source (compare Old High German polstar "pillow;" see bolster (n.)), or perhaps from Latin pullus "young of an animal" (from PIE root *pau- (1) "few, little"). Also see -oon. Related: Poltroonish; poltroonery.
