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To be a couch potato

Posted by SR on September 23, 2004

In Reply to: To be a couch potato posted by Henry on September 23, 2004

: : Hi. I have a quiz for school, and we have to look up the expression: "To be a couch potato!"
: : I can't find it anywhere, so I thought, maybe one of you does.
: : Could you mail me at my email-adress please, if you have information for me?

: From Bartleby.com
: couch potato; Slang A person who spends much time sitting or lying down, usually watching television.


: When the expression "couch potato" was coined, it referred to people who preferred to spend their spare time watching television. Although people who are too lazy to carry papers up or down a flight of stairs are now dubbed "fax potatoes" and those who spend their free time surfing the Internet called "mouse potatoes," one can get carried away formulating new names for those who spend their free time in nonphysical activities.
:
: The phrase "couch potatoes" was first marketed in 1982. People were asked to send in a dollar and a list of their five favorite TV shows of all time. Those who did received membership cards and a newsletter, The Tuber's Voice, that glorified extended TV viewing.

The television has long been referred to as the "tube," and those who watch television became known as "tubers."
Definition: \Tu"ber\, n.[L., a hump. knob; probably akin to tumere to
swell. Cf. {Tumid}.]
1. (Bot.)
(a) A fleshy, rounded stem or root, usually containing
starchy matter, as the potato or arrowroot; a
thickened root-stock. See Illust. of {Tuberous}.

And so the couch potatoo was born.

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