so I found about couchers.org on Reddit. Name made me smile because one of my mother tongue is french.
french plural like in english is with an “s”, but it is mute.
English words in “er” imported in french are modified into “eur”. For instance rocker → rockeur, rapper-> rapeur, see among others in Le Robert:
in plural it’s then rockeurs, rapeurs, etc, and the “s” is mute.
so “couchers” is going to be uttered “coucheurs”
“couch” is a Middle-Ages french name for “bed”, it did travel with the french-normand nobility over the Channel after Hastings and Guillaume Le conquérant. In contemporary french it became obsolete, quaint, long ago. Instead the verb “coucher” is used in pronominal “se coucher” for “go to bed”, but otherwise “coucher” means to “bed with someone”. For instance: “il couche avec elle” = he ‘beds/sleeps’ with her.
“un coucheur” is a “beder” ie. a guy who ‘beds’ actively, or for a girl “une coucheuse”.
there’s also “mauvais coucheur”, with a completely different (yet derivated) meaning: grumpy, irascible.
the echo of the name couchsurfing in french is a different affair,“couch” doesn’t evocate/trigger at all “coucheur” in that case, for some it’s just the medieval “couche” and for most it was confused with “coach”, because many french speakers are more exposed to that word like in “the coach of a sport team”.
some 15 years ago when I spotted the website (back then almost empty) couchsurfing.com, the name puzzled me, because I didn’t know what “couch” was in english. So, it meant “sofa” or “divan”. Well, but then the idea of “surfing” a sofa felt very weird to me. You surf the waves, you don’t surf a sofa…
the name hospitalityclub had the advantage of being less english-centric and more explicit about well … hospitality.
Instead surfing a couch isn’t about the hoster, but about the sofa. Back then I was thinking that 's the difference between yuropan hospitality and yanqi bizness or utilitarism.
anyway the name “couchsurfing” which is not easy to pronounce in many languages, did stick.
Now, no longer surfers of sofa, but next step, des coucheurs
btw, I see that you coucheurs team, do write couchsurfing with the appended TM (trademark).
As for me CS can’t use a common name as a TM. “couch surf, couchsurfer/couch-surfer/ing” seems to be an american slang related to transient life style and semi/temporary homelessness. This is documented online before CS existed.
Also in song, the canadian band Bran Van 3000 and their 1996 album with the song “Couch surfer”:
Together with everything and nothing between us,
You are the whole soul goal me you,
Universal universal union,
Blending in matter,
Journeying harmony, journeying harmony.
The ecstasy is voyaged through swaying, interplaying,
Perennial gardenia gardens,
Flowing into fuscia fountains,
Leaping into warm purple pink gaseous fumes, purple pools,
Moving in, undulating emanating jewels,
Into a timeless spaceless place.
Couch surfer (such a cute face)
I’m surfing, couch surfing
Move into your house, I’m a couch surfer
Move into your house,
I’m a couch surfer,
Yeah, but I don’t mean to be,
Somebody took my keys,
I’m a couch surfer.
Well I’m locked inside the Holiday Inn and I’d like to get out with just a little bit of rain,
Down and down and down and out,
but I don’t give a damn.
Can I crash at your place again?
Just one more night?
Couch surfer
I’m couch surfing, I’m a couch surfer
Locked on the inside,
I’m locked in but you locked me on the outside,
Inside of no longer me,
Move to tears beyond into a pond of cool quivers,
My being shivers,
I’m pure energy beyond the sun,
I’m utterly complete union.
I’m a couch surfer
Mind if I eat those chips?
Oh that’s okay,
I don’t like salt and vinegar anyways.
No no no, I didn’t use pay-per-view.
I figured it was free.
Yeah, I’m going.
I’m a couch surfer, couch surfing