Divan

Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 4: Dionysius to Friction, p. 18

Divan is a Persian word meaning collection, society, council, audience-chamber, as also the kind of cushioned seats or sofas which in reception-rooms in the East are ranged against the wall. Another meaning is a collection of poems—in which special sense of the term Goethe used it for his West-östlicher Divan.

Source scan(s): p. 0027