Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Have a Seat on the Daveno
What’s that you say?
I was recently playing a word game and tried to enter ‘daveno’ – I may have spelled it wrong – and was told there was no such word.
Granted, I hadn’t heard it in a few decades, even so, we used it regularly back in the day, when we sat on it. We also sat on the davenport. Today, sofa or couch. Not my house below (from a small restaurant near the coast) but we did have an orange recliner! Probably ‘Naugahyde,’ remember that?
I wondered what happened to ‘daveno’ and found this in the Urban Dictionary: ‘a sofa or couch, widely used in the fifties and sixties, and particularly in the Pacific Northwest.’
Well, hey there! A match!
It reminded me of another word from my childhood that seemed to disappear: ‘zories’ for the ‘sandals’ below. That’s what I called them growing up, though they were no frills, not fancy like the ones I found in Hawaii. Later we called them thongs.
Now they’re called flip-flops but not by me. I don’t know what to call them.
Finally, this is a Coke, (with my name spelled correctly) though generically we called it a pop, not a soda, or soft drink.
What words do you remember from your childhood that seem to have gone missing?
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 
Language is fluid, always changing, ever evolving. 🙂
Yes, indeed. And sometimes unique to a region!
I view myself as a flexible person and open to all cultures. However I always wince a bit when some says pop or even soda pop instead of soda.
I’m not bothered by the differences as they often indicate what region of the country you’re from.. and makes life interesting! 🙂
True. I was only kidding.
😊☺️
Well, you know I remember all of those!
Right? 😀 I didnt realize that daveno was somewhat unique to the Northwest.
I will admit I haven’t heard that word since we moved out of delridge!
Lost to history! 😁
How does something called Bonami go to being called Ajax or Comet ❓
Hmm. Bon Ami has a nice sound to it!
I made a ‘Naugahyde’ ‘bean bag’ lounge in the early 70’s and it took me a week to get a stoner friend of mine off of it in front of my Pioneer Stereo ❗️ 😎
🙂 🙂
Never heard Daveno before, but those thongs are called slippahs in Hawaii!
I like that! Slippahs it is! ☺️
A new word for me! We always used Davenport for the fancy stuff in the living room and sofa for the beat-up furniture in the family room!
I haven’t heard Daveno for years, and hadn’t realized it might be unique to the Pacific NW! I also haven’t heard Davenport forever, but apparently it was commonly used back in the day! 🙂
I had never heard of ‘Davino’. We call it a settee or sofa here. (Never a couch). Drinks like Coke we called ‘fizzy drinks’ in London, but in other parts of the UK ‘Pop’ is used. Those sandals have always been ‘flip-flops’ here, ever since I can remember. Many of the potentially forgotten words from my childhood are still around, but are often unique to London.
Best wishes, Pete.
A ‘settee’ is nice and descriptive; people here use couch, sometimes sofa. (Daveno and davenport both go way back.) ‘Fizzy drinks’ does the job nicely though I’ve never heard it said here. I saw the fancy ‘flip-flops’ in Hawaii, and Graham (who lives on the Big Island) says they call them ‘slippahs’ there which is rather fun!
I’ve never heard the word ‘daveno’ and davenport sounds very Victorian! Those sandals are definitely flip-flops in the UK (‘thongs’ are very skimpy underpants!) and Coke is a soft drink, though pop used to be used a lot especially in the north of England
I hadn’t realized that ‘daveno’ was such a regional word here in the Northwest, though it’s been out of use now for years. When ‘zories’ went out of fashion, we called them ‘thongs’ and as you mention, the meaning has changed dramatically, and I often catch myself calling them that. 😉 🙂
My grandma was from Minnesota and she always said “davenport”. I still remember when we were kids the first time she referred to the “davenport” and we had no idea what she meant. We always said “couch”. 😂 I do remember using the term “zorries” but we grew up calling them “thongs”. Talk about a word that’s changed meanings over the years. 😮
Interesting how there are regional differences! I called them zorries, and when that fell out of fashion, I called them thongs, too! I still have to catch myself from using that as the meaning has definitely changed! 🙂 Flip-flops seems to be the word now, but I can’t bring myself to call them that, either! I like Graham’s comment, from Hawaii, where they are called ‘slippahs!’
Yes I saw that and I thought it was a good one too!
I grew up in Arizona in the 70s and 80s. I’ve never heard the first two words before. (We called it a couch or less-often sofa. We wore flip-flops a lot in the hot summers in Phoenix. And Coke was definitely a soda.) It’s so funny the regional — and temporal — differences in what we call things. 😃😃😃
Interesting! Daveno and Davenport seem to be very regional; same with soda or pop. 😊
This is fun reading! My word would be yonder.
I love yonder! Very close to my favorite word, ponder! 🙂