Regency era: Drawing-room, sitting-room, parlor? what's the diff?

Question

Drawing-room, sitting-room, parlor? What's the difference? Where is the place you entertain guests, and where is the place people do their knitting and reading?>

Answer 1

In the Regency period it would have been the 'withdrawing room', or the room that the ladies went to after they had 'withdrawn' from men's company at the end of a meal (to allow the men to drink copiously, smoke cigars and tell rude stories). I don't think 'sitting room' came in as a usage until much later - it was a lower middle class expression. 1930s semi-detached houses in the UK were usually built with two main rooms (apart from the kitchen) downstairs. One would be the 'dining room', the other 'the sitting room' or, if you had social climbing aspirations, 'the lounge'. 'Parlour' was a Victorian and Edwardian word in similar circles for the 'best' room in the house, which was often only used when guests visited - or the vicar came to tea.

Answer 2

The word "lounge" came into,use after the Second World War, as well as "sitting room". The drawing room, still in use in large houses, was where ladies would withdraw from men s company because of the smoke from the latter s pipes mad cigars.

Some large houses today still have a sitting room and also a drawing room although the latter is largely disappearing in modern large houses. The word "lounge" is still largely used for,either sitting room or drawing room in smaller houses. The dining room is still evident in all houses whatever the size, although the kitchen also is used as such in many cases. The differences are not so obvious in modern times though the word "lounge" is still used in certain households albeit frowned upon by those who think they are better!!!