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A chair is a piece of furniture with a raised surface commonly used to seat a single person. Chairs are supported most often by four legs and have a back;〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Chair )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Chair )〕 however, a chair can have three legs or could have a different shape.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=3 Legs Good; 4 Legs Bad )〕 Chairs are made of a wide variety of materials, ranging from wood to metal, and they may be padded or upholstered, either just on the seat or on the entire chair (e.g., with a La-Z-Boy chair). Chairs are used in a number of rooms in homes (e.g., in living rooms, dining rooms and dens), in schools and offices (with desks) and in various other workplaces. A chair without a back or arm rests is a stool,〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Stool )〕 or when raised up, a bar stool.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Bar Stool )〕 A chair with arms is an armchair〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Armchair )〕 and with upholstery, reclining action and a fold-out footrest, a recliner.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Recliner )〕 A permanently fixed chair in a train or theater is a seat〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Seat )〕 or, in an airplane, airline seat; when riding, it is a saddle and bicycle saddle, and for an automobile, a car seat or infant car seat. With wheels it is a wheelchair〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Wheelchair )〕 and when hung from above, a swing. An upholstered, padded chair for more than one person is a couch, sofa, settee, or "loveseat";〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Couch )〕 or if is not upholstered, a bench.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Bench )〕 A separate footrest for a chair, usually upholstered, is known as an ottoman,〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Ottoman )〕 hassock〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Hassock )〕 or pouffe.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Pouffe )〕 == History == (詳細はHouse of Commons in the United Kingdom〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Architecture of the Palace )〕 and Canada,〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Speaker’s Chairs )〕 and in many other settings. In keeping with this historical connotation of the "chair" as the symbol of authority, committees, boards of directors, and academic departments all have a 'chairman' or 'chair'.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Professor )〕 Endowed professorships are referred to as chairs.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=What is an "Endowed Chair?" )〕 It was not until the 16th century that chairs became common. Until then, people sat on chests, benches and stools, which were the ordinary seats of everyday life, and the number of chairs which have survived from an earlier date is exceedingly limited; most examples are of ecclesiastical or seigneurial origin.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Chairs )〕 Our knowledge of the chairs of remote antiquity is derived almost entirely from monuments, sculpture and paintings.〔 Chairs were in existence since at least the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt. They were covered with cloth or leather, were made of carved wood and were much lower than today’s chairs, chair seats were sometimes only 25 cm high.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Furniture )〕 In ancient Egypt chairs appear to have been of great richness and splendor. Fashioned of ebony and ivory, or of carved and gilded wood, they were covered with costly materials, magnificent patterns and supported upon representations of the legs of beasts or the figures of captives.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Chairs of the Ancient World )〕 Generally speaking, the higher ranked an individual was, the taller and more sumptuous was the chair he sat on and the greater the honor. On state occasions the pharaoh sat on a throne, often with a little footstool in front of it.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Furniture )〕 The average Egyptian family seldom had chairs, and if they did, it was usually only the master of the household who sat on a chair. Among the better off, the chairs might be painted to look like the ornate inlaid and carved chairs of the rich, but the craftsmanship was usually poor.〔 The earliest images of chairs in China are from sixth-century Buddhist murals and stele, but the practice of sitting in chairs at that time was rare. It was not until the twelfth century that chairs became widespread in China. Scholars disagree on the reasons for the adoption of the chair. The most common theories are that the chair was an outgrowth of indigenous Chinese furniture, that it evolved from a camp stool imported from Central Asia, that it was introduced to China by Christian missionaries in the seventh century, and that the chair came to China from India as a form of Buddhist monastic furniture. In modern China, unlike Korea or Japan, it is no longer common to sit at floor level.〔Kieschnick, John. ''The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture'', Princeton University Press, 2003, pp.222-248.〕 In Europe, it was owing in great measure to the Renaissance that the chair ceased to be a privilege of state, and became a standard item of furniture for anyone who could afford to buy it. Once the idea of privilege faded the chair speedily came into general use. We find almost at once that the chair began to change every few years to reflect the fashions of the day.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title= From Benches to Barstools: A History of Chairs, Posture, and Society )〕 In the 1880s, chairs became more common in American households and usually there was a chair provided for every family member to sit down to dinner. By the 1830s, factory-manufactured “fancy chairs” like those by Sears. Roebuck, and Co. allowed families to purchase machined sets. With the Industrial Revolution, chairs became much more available.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title= From Benches to Barstools: A History of Chairs, Posture, and Society )〕 The 20th century saw an increasing use of technology in chair construction with such things as all-metal folding chairs, metal-legged chairs, the Slumber Chair, moulded plastic chairs〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Eames® Molded Plastic Eiffel Side Chair )〕 and ergonomic chairs.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=What is an ergonomic chair? )〕 The recliner became a popular form, at least in part due to radio and television. The modern movement of the 1960s produced new forms of chairs: the butterfly chair (originally called the Hardoy chair),〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Butterfly chair )〕 bean bags,〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Bean Bag Chair FAQ )〕 and the egg-shaped pod chair that turns. Technological advances led to molded plywood and wood laminate chairs, as well as chairs made of leather or polymers. Mechanical technology incorporated into the chair enabled adjustable chairs, especially for office use. Motors embedded in the chair resulted in massage chairs.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Definitions for Massage Actions for Massage Chairs )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「chair」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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