Do you say sofa or couch? In England, they call it a sofa. We can blame Nancy Mitford for that. Her 1954 essay, The English Aristocracy, included a glossary of terms used by the upper classes. The essay was tongue-in-cheek but the British public took it very seriously indeed. Mitford classified the word sofa as U (or upper class). Ever since then, it’s been the accepted term for that piece of furniture in the UK.