pouf

Pouf is French, likely onomatopoeic — imitating the soft sound of expelled air or a cushion being dropped. The word appeared in French in the eighteenth century with several meanings: a puffed-out hairstyle (the enormous powdered constructions worn at the court of Marie Antoinette), a type of fabric gathering, and eventually a round cushioned seat. All three meanings share the idea of something inflated, rounded, and soft.

Marie Antoinette's hairdresser, Léonard Autié, created the pouf hairstyle in the 1770s — towering constructions incorporating feathers, jewels, miniature ships, and garden scenes. A pouf à la Belle Poule commemorated a naval battle. These confections reached three feet in height. The word named the inflated shape. When the fashion died with the Revolution, the word survived by attaching to furniture.

The furniture pouf — a round, backless, legless cushioned seat — became popular in European interiors during the nineteenth century. It was designed for informal seating in drawing rooms and boudoirs, places where the rigid upright posture required by chairs was not expected. The pouf invited slouching. Its lack of structure was the point.

The modern pouf is a staple of interior design blogs and furniture catalogs. Knitted poufs, leather poufs, Moroccan poufs — the form has been adapted by every design tradition. The word has gained an alternative spelling, 'pouffe,' in British English, and is sometimes confused with 'poof,' a different word entirely. The cushion that went 'pouf' when dropped became a category of furniture.