I've started so I'll furnish...

[redscharlach]

For no real reason other than to satisfy my own gnawing curiosity, I'd like to enlist your help with a piece of vocabulary research. But before you jump into the nearest tickybox, please point your eyes at the following informative diagram:

Comments

[stlscape]

I'd call it a hassock or ottoman, or, occasionally, a footstool. Just depends on what comes out of my mouth on that day.

[moryssa]

Same here.

[artekka]

I have NEVER heard of a tuft of grass or a hillock called a "hassock" or "tuffet". That's why we HAVE the words "tuft" and "hillock"! To me, a hassock is purely a piece of furniture and a tuffet is just a God-knows-what that Little Miss Muffet sat on.

I heard once (I think from Bill Bryson) that "tuffet" wasn't a word until the nursery rhyme, so I just looked it up in the OED. The OED illuminatingly reads:

? Obs. exc. dial.

However, it also gives the following definitions:
1. tuft (examples are of hair, flowers, and rushes)
2. a hillock, mound (ie tuft)
and
3. Perh.: hassock or footstool (the first two of three examples being references to the nursery rhyme)
So even the OED can't figure out if it's supposed to be a footstool or not.

They also have the amazing variant "tuffetwise":
adv. [-wise comb. form] Obs. in the manner or form of a tuffet or tuft.PS: a hassock can also be "A ‘shock’ of hair", "A rush basket" or "The soft calcareous sandstone which separates the beds of ragstone in Kent", and the OED also adds the variants "

[wings_on_water]

Haha, I love all the variations on hassock! Sandstone in Kent! A verb form!

:D :D

I'm in Canada, and I very very rarely hear the word hassock. I think the only times were in reference to a round stuffed thing for putting one's feet on, but it had no hard structural components and had in fact come from Africa, I believe.

*shrugs*

[redscharlach]

"Tuffetwise" is a great word, and I am now determined to find an occasion to use it in a sentence. Even if I have to wake up tomorrow morning with my hair tuffetwise to do it.

[scifinut]

For my definition, and my sister agrees with me, it's a footstool or an ottoman. An ottoman is usually larger than a footstool and can be repurposed as a seat or a small side table as the need arises. Footstools are generally smaller and used only for feet. Footrests are part of reclining chairs, not stand-alone features. None of the other words are used here in the Midwest USA, as far as I remember.

Unless it's the broken glass.

Maybe it's called a tikkibawks.

[redscharlach]

Maybe it's called a tikkibawks.

Well, if the base is made of hardwood and you can store things inside it, it could be a teaky box....

[creme_bun]

I've pondered on this for a bit and I don't really believe it's a "where I come from we call it this" thingy but an age thingy. The older you are the more apt you are to call it a hassock or tuffet.

[artekka]

Well, but that's still geographical. B/c I can see some of the older people around here (Pennsylvania) calling it a hassock or footstool, but definitely NOT a tuffet. Never, never. So it's probably a combination of both age and geography.

[alkari]

Hmmm - down under here in Oz I've never, ever heard of people using the terms "hassock" or "tuffet", even back to my grandmother's generation (A long time ago!)

An "ottoman" would be bigger, either square or round, and able to be used for an adult seat or for a table. Sometimes it would have storage inside.

When I was growing up, we'd have called the item you show a "pouffe", which again could be square or round. OK for a child to sit on, but usually there for adult feet. What to call it today? "Footrest" or "Footstool" interchangeably, though I agree that footrests are generally an extension of some item of furniture, while stools 'should' have legs.