couch potato

See also: 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)

(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

Translations

person

Armenian: մեշոկ (mešok)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 電視迷, 电视迷 (diànshìmí)
Czech: pecivál (cs) m
Finnish: sohvaperuna (fi)
French: avachi (fr), légume (fr), pantouflard (fr), télézard (fr) (Quebec))
German: Nichtstuer m

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

References

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

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