Couch-Potato

Couch Potato (from the U.S. slang ) is the stereotype of a person who eat a lot of their free time on a sofa or chair with television, junk food and drink beer spends. The term has a negative connotation. At this cliché also heard that couch potatoes and overweight of total unkempt appearance. As an example is the U.S. cartoon character Homer Simpson from The Simpsons.

Word origin

Mid-1970s was a friend of the American cartoonist Robert D. Armstrong on the idea to start a club for lazy people, in response to which, as he found excessive health and fitness fanatics of his time. For fun, they decided to call their group couch potatoes, and created an image of a potato lying on the sofa and constantly " television staring ." Armstrong had this notion protect and began to market the potato, with T- shirts with images of the "couch potato" and the motto " Sic Semper Potatum Reclinus ". He was also co-author and illustrator of the book The Official Couch Potato Handbook. Gradually the word crept into the English language and was accepted into the Oxford English Dictionary in 1993. In a figurative sense to indicate the term also persons who lack initiative and are difficult to inspire an effort or challenge, in particular for physical activities. Similar German terms are Sesselpupser or couch potato.

A modification is Mouse Potato and refers to a person who spends all his time in front of the computer.