I realise this may seem like a stupid question, but in my mind coffee tables have not really been used for coffee, and certainly aren't now. Modern coffee tables are there to hold coffee table books and pretty vases. If any one has any knowlege on the reason its called a coffee table, or any other opinions to offer on the subject, i would be most grateful.
According to Wikipedia,
"A coffee table is a style of long, low table which is designed to be placed in front of a couch, to support beverages (hence the name), magazines, books, and other small items to be used while sitting. Coffee tables may also incorporate cabinets for storage.
"Coffee tables found their way into the West from the Ottoman Empire, where they were a common fixture in tea gardens and other places where coffee was served. They became especially common after the siege of Vienna in 1683."
In a recent
novel by P D James, Inspector Dalgliesh prepares to host an early evening meeting by both making coffee AND opening a bottle of red wine. While she doesn't say what kind of table he puts any of this on, surely any table named for one beverage can be used for another. . .?
What's in a name ? Not a lot, in many cases.
It just seems odd that we...
It just seems odd that we classify them with this name. I just wonder how the name became so familiar, when they were hardly ever used for their intended purpose?! Breakfast bar I can understand, as in a lot of places it is actually used to have breakfast on, but coffee table? And why are they so low, surely its easier to pick up a drink (of any kind) at the same height as your arm, than to bend down to a low 'coffee table'?
it's not very odd
after all it must be called something in order to refer to it. perhaps the table was used commonly for this ritual during the time that the name was concieved. i still think it is used for this commonly.
i occasionally use my coffee table for coffee and in the evening, wine or beer with friends. if the table were higher it would be pretty distracting being that it is in the center of the seating area. since coffee is also associated with light snacks there are no large dishes to deal with. the coffee cup is so small and so is a dish only large enough to hold a muffin or biscotti, it seems reasonable to sit it on a low table. at a meal you hover over a plate constantly interacting with it. coffee is made to sip and often sits idle for minutes at a time. makes sense to me.
in fact i was just visiting my mother and father yesterday. we had coffee and used their coffee table for it. it is something that we do at their house almost every visit. i wonder why the concept of a coffee table seems so odd to you. perhaps you just did not grow up using it this way?
one might question same about 'card table,' if...
one grew up in a family where such tables were used for cross word puzzles instead of cards. frankly we never played cards on card tables. we always played cards at the dinner table, at which we at not only dinnner but lunch too. we also had some bar stools, but no bar, just a short breakfast counter that we never ate breakfast at. Human language is elusive. As a young man, Ludwig Wittgenstein dashed off a treatise on logical positivism in rather short order and became hugely respected, Shortly after, he chucked logical positivism for an inquiry into language that consumed him for the rest of his life and some would say ruined him as a useful philosopher. it lead him far into the philosophical equivalent of the famous Clintonian phrase: "that depends on what the meaning of is is."
my advice is this: think of language as a tool. use it the best way you can. hope others do. but don't be surprised when it is used in ways that are not really how it would seem to have been intended.
if you must inquire more deeply into language, start with noam chomsky's linguistics, or whomever had succeeded him as a theorist. then study great poets. their game is one of exploring language to find its nuances, capacities and limits, while still conveying sensory experience programmed to a certain meaning.
otherwise, let a coffee table be a coffee table and assume it just feels better to people to say coffee table that magazine table, or book table, or foot table, etc.
It sometimes takes human beings along time to master the obvious, Ruthie...
Why coffee tables are not "designed" with surfaces especially intended to handle both hard and soft sole shoes, as well as magazines, vases, ashtrays, books, etc., I don't know. If they were, perhaps we could call them coffee ottomans. 🙂 I know they would get alot more use than they do now in most houses.
I have always reckoned that not putting one's feet up on the furniture had a couple of origins.
First, the furniture wasn't designed for feet and so to avoid wear and soiling back when furniture was even more dear to replace than now, you were told to keep your feet off!
Second, I reckon the reason furniture wasn't designed for feet is a legacy custom dating back to the days of horse transit and often filthy streets. Who would want horse shit from the souls of shoes on one's coffee table? Of course, now adays, with few horses and relatively clean streets, one's shoes would probably be clean enough, unless its the rain or snow season.
Third, shoes off the furniture as a custom probably also tracks back to the days of infrequent bathing and stinky feet and shoes. I may have to put up with you as a visitor in my house, but you don't have to put your stinking feet and shoes up high where I have to smell and look at them. Nowadays, this seems a bit anachronistic.
Fourth, I reckon few want to eat and drink off surfaces that have had shoes and feet on them. But design could easily solve this problem with a two level coffee table--one for feet and one for nourishment.
To emphasize my initial point about humans failing to master the obvious for long periods, consider luggage. During much of my life, and for all the history of the suitcase so far as I know it, rollers were not placed on one end so the luggage could be towed effortlessly. Instead, one had to carry it by a handle or strap, bearing its full weight rather like a jack ass with hands carrying sand bags. To fully comprehend the magnitude of human indolence involved in carrying, rather than towing, suitcases for upteen generations, recall how many centuries the wheel has been in use by civilization. I myself flew through airports for nearly two decades before some luggage designer relieved my burden with a decent pair of wheels set in my suitcase on one end. It simply never occurred to me to put rollers on my suitcases.
Likewise, I suspect it has never occurred to many designers and most people to design a coffee table with a place for the feet to rest elevated. And if this is intellectual property, I thought of it first. 🙂
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