The origin of the corner chair can be traced to six- or eight-leg chairs of Chinese palaces with marble seats, sometimes rotating. The Chinese chairs inspired the Dutch (and English)^[3] designs in William and Mary and Queen Anne styles in the 17th and 18th centuries, these adaptations are called burgomaster chairs, as they were used as chairs of office in settlements (burgs).^[4] Initially the chairs retained the round shape of the Chinese prototypes^[5] (thus one more name, roundabout chairs, which in American English became a synonym of the corner chair,^[6] yet sometimes is still used to describe the older six- or eight- legged design with a round seat).^[7]

The corner chair got its name recently^[8][when?] and was contemporarily known under a variety of names.^[9] Gloag^[8] states that the "roundabout" term was not contemporary, and the "burgomaster" name also appears to be modern. However, the term "round about chair" and many other, less popular, ones ("round chair", "three-cornered chair", "triangle chair", "half round chair") can be seen in the New England inventories as early as 1738.^[9]