The actual linguistic and commercial birth of the term appears to happen much later, in the early 20th century. A significant piece of evidence comes from a 1917 advertisement in Vanity Fair, which offers a “Revolving Server or Lazy Susan” for sale. However, the device described is a wooden circular tray with a metal rim, designed for the dining table. This suggests the name was already in circulation, if not yet standardized. The true explosion in its popularity came not from Jefferson’s Virginia but from the industrial Midwest. In the 1920s and 30s, the Pittsburgh-based Ovington Brothers, a high-end pottery and glassware company, began mass-producing ceramic Lazy Susans. They used the name aggressively in their marketing, transforming a clever gadget into a must-have household item for the modern, efficient home.
Why “Susan”? The answer is lost to time, but scholars have proposed several intriguing theories. One suggests that “Susan” was simply a generic, common female name in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, much like “Jane Doe” today. The “lazy” part, therefore, is ironic and slightly derogatory. It implies that the servant (Susan) is too lazy to walk around the table, so the food must come to her. This interpretation aligns with the era’s growing middle class, which was moving away from having formal, liveried servants and embracing labor-saving devices. The Lazy Susan was a machine that replaced a footman. Another theory posits that “Susan” was a popular name for servants in general, making “Lazy Susan” a darkly humorous workplace joke among the domestic staff themselves—a way to mock a device that reduced their work by making their employers “lazy.” lazy susan origin
The most persistent and popular legend dates the device to the late 18th century and credits it to an unlikely source: Thomas Jefferson. The story goes that the third President of the United States, a notorious inventor and tinkerer, was frustrated by the slow, uneven service at his Monticello estate. A daughter or daughter of a friend, often named as Susan, was habitually the last to be served, leading to cold food and a “lazy” refusal to ask for dishes to be passed. To solve this, Jefferson is said to have invented a rotating dumbwaiter or a circular shelf on a central pivot, calling it a “Lazy Susan.” While Jefferson certainly did invent a revolving serving table—a “dumbwaiter” with multiple shelves—the name “Lazy Susan” does not appear in any of his extensive records. The story is charming but likely apocryphal, a classic example of attaching a well-loved invention to a famous, ingenious figure. The actual linguistic and commercial birth of the