Just a quick question. Why all the euphemisms for the toilet? In one thread I’ve just been reading there was…
Bathroom
Restroom
Ladies room
Cloakroom…but absolutely no mention of a toilet! What’s wrong with calling a spade a spade? (Or a toilet a toilet?)
It’s an American thing, I guess. We don’t mind asking where it is, we just don’t think it’s anybody’s business why we’re going there. Asking where the toilet is, is an outright admission that we are going to take a dump. If we ask where the restroom is, we could be planning to do any assortment of less, er, “biological” things.
It gets worse! Cecil has pointed out that toilet is the process of dressing and grooming. It was given its modern meaning as a euphemism. That is, the device has no real name, just a series of euphemisms.
I think it should just be named after it’s alleged inventor–Thomas Crapper, who was British by the way. Why not call it the crapper? It’s functional, and credits the inventor.
However, I looked into this subject (ugh!) and found a web site that claims Crapper did not actually invent the flush toilet. Although, he did advance the technology.
http://www.blkbox.com/~jct/html/157.html
“So not only was he [Crapper] not the inventor of the flush toilet – it’s also unlikely that he really gave it his name, either. What he did do, was to carry the technology forward.”
I like to call it the “Tinkletorium” or “The Porcilin Palace of Pleasure”
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Is the consensus, then, to use “toilet” in loo of other terms?
Gravitas - should I condemn you for bad spelling or bad punmanship?
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It’s the beauty of the English language that it provides so many synonyms for all kinds of things. Just look how many synonyms there are for feces:
dung
poop
crap
shit
ka-ka
and so on. If the product can have this many synonyms, why can’t the product receptacle?
Well, look at it this way. How many times do you defecate a day? I usually top out at 1. How many baths do you take a day? Here, again, I’m going to say my normal number is 1. Therefore, it is as accurate to call it a bathroom as it is to call it a toilet.
Actually, it’s more accurate. The proper term should be “toiletroom” if you are naming it after a toilet. Calling it a toilet is like calling it a bathtub.
Granted, when you talk about restrooms in public places, you usually don’t get a bathtub. What you get is a sink, a mirror and some manner of toilet (also urinals for guys - to make it even more complicated).
However, “accuracy” has little to do with it. This is a language, not a building. There are no blueprints or plans. So people use whatever terms become popular ("water closet’ anyone?).
I know from reading blueprints that the room in question is usually called either a lavatory or a WC. I usually see the latter when there’s not enough room to write out lavatory.
I’m pretty sure that “lavatory” is the proper name for the bathroom sink…but hell, I could be wrong.
I didn’t see any mention of the term “washroom” in your list. That’s what I use the “washroom” most for, washing my hands, brushing my teeth - yeah, I brush my teeth more often than I use the toilet - go figure.
The toilet is just part of the washing up process.
Probably because it sounds better… Would you prefer a woman say that she has to use the toilet rather than powder her nose?
The room containing the porcelain fixtures is the pissoir.
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Soul, the dictionary says a lavatory is:
(1) a room equipped with washing and often toilet facilities
(2) a basin or bowl, esp. one permanently installed with running water for washing
(3) a toilet
Yes I would. If anyone i was out with came back and used that dreadful euphemism I would wonder what I was doing being friends with them in the first place. You are going to the toilet, so why not just say so? Everyone knows what you’re up to there’s no point being delicate about it.
Agreed, that euphemism, “powder one’s nose”, is dreadful.
You prefer that people say they are going to the toilet. I prefer them to say that they are going to the washroom. You say “tomato”, I say “tomahto”. If you prefer not to be friends with someone who uses a particular euphemism, that is your choice.
As for your, “Everyone knows what you’re up to {in the washroom}”, do you really? :o
I always preferred the phrase, “I’m going to the office to do some work.”
When I go to the “bathroom” you don’t know exactly what I’m doing at all. Here is a list of some of things I might do:
blow my nose
take a leak
take a dump
wash my hands
fart
burp
Make sure I have no food on my face
adjust my cajones (they tend to wander)
etc…
Also, a bathroom or washroom can contain multiple toilets of different types (sit-downs, stand-ups, or, as in stadiums, the cattle-trough.
Since my trip to the bathroom might not result in my using a toilet, I usually refer to it as “bathroom”.
There’s no reason to be graphic or crude about it either. At work we just refer to it as “droppping the kids off at the pool”.
I haven’t heard this used in a while but isn’t “shitter” a non-euphamistic way of referring to the toilet?
My dad always used to announce “I have to use the throne.” Dad liked to reign o’er his subjects.