# A commode you probably don't crap in. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 17, 2013, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-commode-you-probably-dont-crap-in/671449 "2013-10-17T00:22:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-commode-you-probably-dont-crap-in/671449/1 "2013-10-17T00:22:27Z")
What a strange change in word usage. This article discusses a 80k commode stolen from the Rockefeller family. One glance at the photo and its obviously not for taking a crap. > **[Fake prince swiped $80K antique from ailing Rockefeller heiress: Lawsuit](https://www.nydailynews.com/2013/10/16/fake-prince-swiped-80k-antique-from-ailing-rockefeller-heiress-lawsuit/)** > > A pretend prince poached an $80,000 antique from a Rockefeller heiress, court papers charge. Lisenne Rockefeller, 57, says in papers filed in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court that a Michigan man n… Some googling reveals commode was originally a beautiful French chest of drawers. > **[Commode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commode)** > > A commode is any of many pieces of furniture. The Oxford English Dictionary has multiple meanings of "commode". The first relevant definition reads: "A piece of furniture with drawers and shelves; in the bedroom, a sort of elaborate chest of drawers (so in French); in the drawing room, a large (and generally old-fashioned) kind of chiffonier." The drawing room is itself a term for a formal reception room, and a chiffonier is, in this sense, a small sideboard dating from the early 19th century. How in the heck did it get twisted into being a place to sit on and shit? > [@](#): > > In the English-speaking world, commode passed into London cabinet-makers’ parlance by the mid-eighteenth century, to describe chests of drawers with gracefully curved fronts, and sometimes with shaped sides as well, perceived as being in the “French” taste. Thomas Chippendale employed the term “French Commode Tables” to describe designs in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Director (1753), and Ince and Mayhew illustrated a “Commode Chest of drawers”, plate xliii, in their Universal System of Household Furniture, 1759-62. John Gloag notes[7] that Commode expanded to describe any piece of furniture with a serpentine front, such as a dressing table, or even a chair seat ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-commode-you-probably-dont-crap-in/671449/2 "2013-10-17T00:34:15Z")
I recall on antiques roadshow there was a fancy cabinet that held the chamber pot. Had some big french name. I got grossed out because the appraiser said it was kept in the dining room. :eek: People literally got up from the table, walked a few feet and took a dump in that chamber pot. Then went back to the table. This was in the large Manor homes and Palaces. Anyone recall what those cabinets were called? ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-commode-you-probably-dont-crap-in/671449/3 "2013-10-17T00:37:18Z")
Here’s a link from the [Online Etymology Dictionary](http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=commode). Basically, the word has a root meaning going all the way back to Latin that is “convenient” or “proper” and has had this meaning applied to various things over the years. These include the chests of drawers, a ladies hairstyle, and the enclosure for a toilet. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-commode-you-probably-dont-crap-in/671449/4 "2013-10-17T03:10:57Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > chests of drawers, a ladies hairstyle, and the enclosure for a toilet. [Johnny Carson]“Name three commodes!”[/Johnny Carson] ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-commode-you-probably-dont-crap-in/671449/5 "2013-10-17T03:44:23Z")
[Commode means comfort](http://http://www.latin-dictionary.net/definition/11476/commode-commodius-commodissime). There are times when a toilet is a very comfy place to sit. All of the other stuff included will just make it more comfortable. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-commode-you-probably-dont-crap-in/671449/6 "2013-10-17T04:45:38Z")
[Eating out?](http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-77791597/) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-commode-you-probably-dont-crap-in/671449/7 "2013-10-17T16:39:12Z")
Thanks for the replies. Several mentioned commode as the private enclosure. But it’s also the porcelain throne too? Isn’t it? Flatlined makes a good point that “comfort” is the common meaning throughout the words use. Interesting how this word has changed over the years. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-commode-you-probably-dont-crap-in/671449/8 "2013-10-17T16:59:37Z")
Just for fun: [Bathroom Commodes](http://www.ebe.org.uk/joke21.htm) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-commode-you-probably-dont-crap-in/671449/9 "2013-10-18T16:58:08Z")
Given the rotating history of euphemisms for the place that you go to get rid of your waste, this kind of meaning transfer isn’t really surprising. Since people first started squatting behind a bush to do their business, “polite” words for the place where it happened have been used, which eventually become “vulgar” through association, requiring NEW polite words, which then become vulgar by association, requiring NEW etc, etc, etc. I still think my favorite euphemism is one for a chamber pot…the “gazunda”. Because it gazunda the bed. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-commode-you-probably-dont-crap-in/671449/10 "2013-10-18T17:28:34Z")
I recall there was similar confusion a few years ago when it was revealed that John Thain, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch, had spent $35,000 on a commode for his office. [http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/01/23/deal-journal-explainer-the-35000-commode-outrage/](http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/01/23/deal-journal-explainer-the-35000-commode-outrage/)