We all know that the rocking chair is a distinctly american passion, its origins, however, are less clear. Adding skates or rockers to the bottom of chairs probably evolved from the cradle and the rocking horse, which both predate the rocking chair. apparently no one thought to apply the idea to furniture for adults until the eighteenth century.
The word 'rocker' originated in the 15th century and indicated the person responsible for rocking the cradle. In the 18th century it also meant an orator who put others to sleep. Anyway, it was not until 1787 that the earliest dated citation ' ROCKING CHAIR' appeared in the oxford english
dictionary for usage.
Delicious history of rocking chairs
