Ah, the age-old question! While one of your sources hints at the wonderfully named Jay Wellingdon Couch, we must regretfully inform you that he is a fictional character from a rather amusing internet joke. As much as we'd love for history to be that tidy, the person who invented the sofa is, in fact, "anonymous" and "everyone over several thousand years."
The truth is a bit more cushioned and far less simple. The sofa wasn't the brilliant brainchild of a single person but rather a glorious evolution in the pursuit of comfort. Its earliest ancestors can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians, who had sophisticated long chairs and daybeds. The Romans, not to be outdone in matters of leisure, famously lounged on couch-like furniture during their lavish feasts.
The word "sofa" itself comes from the Arabic word "suffah," which described a wooden bench covered in cushions and blankets, proving that the desire to not sit on a hard surface is a universal, timeless human instinct. It wasn't until the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe that upholstered, multi-person seats became a status symbol for the wealthy, slowly morphing into the cherished living room centerpiece we know today.
So, no single inventor gets the credit. Instead, we owe our thanks to a long line of comfort-seeking innovators throughout history who collectively decided that sitting upright on hard wood was simply overrated.
