# "To go potty"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 23, 2006, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843 "2006-06-23T08:45:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/1 "2006-06-23T08:45:16Z")
Just out of curiosity, what does “going potty” mean to you guys? Is it simply going to the bathroom, or does it refer specifically to urination or defecation? I don’t want to skew the results, so I won’t say what it means to me other than I make a distinction between “going potty” and “going to the potty” (not that I ever use either phrase in real life). I’m just wondering whether it’s just me, a regional thing, a gender thing, or it’s a common distinction.
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### Author:  [@Manny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manny)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/2 "2006-06-23T09:23:19Z")
“Go Potty” _to me_ means “Go crazy”
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### Author:  [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/3 "2006-06-23T09:26:35Z")
It means that the speaker is six years old or younger, be it physically or just mentally.
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### Author:  [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/4 "2006-06-23T10:18:17Z")
Yeah, we guys are more descriptive. Either that, or we just say “I’m going to the bathroom/washroom”.
Descriptive like :“I’m gonna take the browns to the super bowl. It’s going to be a come from behind victory.”
No, not juvenile at all.
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### Author:  [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/5 "2006-06-23T12:09:02Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#):
>
> It means that the speaker is six years old or younger, be it physically or just mentally.
Or is speaking _to_ or _about_ someone six years old or younger. This summer I’m babysitting some 3 and 4 year olds. I got laughed at yesterday for saying to them “OK, everyone go potty, we’re going outside.”
I’d probably associate it more with peeing than pooping, but don’t really spend much more time thinking about it than that.
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### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/6 "2006-06-23T12:20:49Z")
What **Manny** said. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/7 "2006-06-23T13:45:08Z")
It’s a term used by women that are offended by the thought of saying toilet, or when people are talking to kids.
I have heard it for the term crasy, but it’s not much in use in the USA.
I’ve seen some bad stuff when people go potty in the public potty. ☹
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### Author:  [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/8 "2006-06-23T15:59:06Z")
It could also mean that the speaker has children. I’m a fairly large 38 year old man, and I say “be right back, gotta go potty”.
I don’t think anyone is interested in what I will be doing whilst in the restroom, so I do not differentiate. Nor do I want to share how “wicked” nor “major” any bodily functions might be.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/9 "2006-06-23T16:04:20Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#):
>
> It means that the speaker is six years old or younger, be it physically or just mentally.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What did it mean to you when you were a kid, then. I’m just trying to figure out how this word is normally used with children or whoever. Zheesh, is it that hard to get a straight answer round here?
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### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/10 "2006-06-23T16:11:49Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> …Zheesh, is it that hard to get a straight answer round here?
You have been here since 2000 and you need to ask **that**? Haha. 🙂 Hollow laughter.
As a furriner, I just take this “got potty” thing to mean "go to bathroom for unspecified bowel, bladder or both, functions, so I suppose it will be interesting to learn if it has a specific meaning.
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### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/11 "2006-06-23T16:12:50Z")
Um, not “got potty” but “GO potty”. A wee mistake there.
Ooh, look at the bad puns of me. 😃
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### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/12 "2006-06-23T16:16:46Z")
I wouldn’t even want to know anything more specific about someone going potty than, I’m headed into the restroom, I’ll be there for a bit and then I’ll be back.
What they do or don’t do while there is none of my business.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/13 "2006-06-23T16:42:42Z")
Either or.
That’s how I started the first thread, but then thought someone would mistake it for the added in crazy posts.
It’s for any needed use of the toilet.
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/14 "2006-06-23T16:48:41Z")
Any of the uses of a bathroom, except an actual bath/shower. I use the phrase and I am childless old spinster. I’m sure it grates on people that I use a baby phrase but it’s not the worst thing I could be doing to them.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/15 "2006-06-23T16:51:09Z")
> [@Manny](#):
>
> “Go Potty” _to me_ means “Go crazy”
All food and no potty make Mutter Museum colon something something…
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### Author:  [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/16 "2006-06-23T16:55:44Z")
I loathe that expression. To me, it means you are, or are being raised by, a not-terribly-bright whitebread stay-at-home mom with plebian tastes and values, who wasn’t really sure she wanted children but couldn’t figure out what else to do. Sorry if that makes you feel all offended.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/17 "2006-06-23T17:17:46Z")
OK.
Lemme explain the question. When I was growing up, it was in a Polish household, so we never used these expressions. However, I somehow ended up equating the phrase “I gotta go potty” with, to be coarse, taking a dump. “I gotta go pee-pee” or “wee-wee” referred to taking a whizz. The distinction was important up to a certain age because it signified the degree of parental involvement necessary. At least, that’s what I think today.
So, to sum up, for me it’s been: “I gotta go potty” = “dropping a deuce.” “I gotta go to _the_ potty” = “I need to use the bathroom”. I’m wondering if I’m completely anamolous in this usage. So far, it does seem to be the case.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/18 "2006-06-23T17:20:08Z")
Oh, one more variant: “I gotta potty.” I also associate this specifically with “dropping the kids off at the pool.”
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/19 "2006-06-23T18:22:08Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> “I gotta go pee-pee” or “wee-wee” referred to taking a whizz.
In that case I would say “I gotta pee” or in more urgent cases “I gotta pee like a racehorse.” I’m still trying to figure out the female equivalent of “draining the weasel”.
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### Author:  [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-go-potty/361843/20 "2006-06-23T18:39:07Z")
> [@gigi](#):
>
> In that case I would say “I gotta pee” or in more urgent cases “I gotta pee like a racehorse.”
Or, as I’ve said since 2003, “I gotta pee like a Seabiscuit.”
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