Well, the sink is just about the perfect height. 
And there’s always the shower. IT’S ALL PIPES!
I do not agree that it’s called the toilet. I can say I cannot remember a single time an American has asked for the toilet or referred to a room with a toilet in it as a toilet.
I lost patience with this sort of mealy mouthed euphemism when I heard someone talking about a dog “going to the bathroom”.
Oh, the euphemisms for elimination (come to think of it, elimination is a bit of a euphemism, too).
My favorite is “I need to steal a mirror”. I’ll have to admit, few catch the reference.
Do you disagree? Or have you just misunderstood? Because you use toilet in exactly the way I did.
Last time I hung out with the Queen she called it the Shitter.
But I also don’t want to hear that someone else’s dog has been pooping or shitting or pissing or whatever. “The dog had to go” might be good enough, if it’s necessary to bring up and most of the time, it’s not necessary.
I read what you said as meaning the room with the toilet in it is called “the toilet”, but people are too polite to ask for it. I then said the room with the toilet in it is not ever called “the toilet” in the US [even if someone weren’t being polite]. So I guess I misunderstood.
OK, now we know where/ on what Dopers are fixated.
Just for the hell of it:
In old houses in San Francisco (pre-Depression), there are/were ‘Split Baths’ - the toilet (properly called a Water Closet) is in one room, the tub and lavy are in a separate room.
I don’t know if this was an early solution to accommodate 2 users at the same time, or was the result of "You’re going to do WHAT INSIDE THE HOUSE?!
In current use in the US:
Quarter bath - water closet only
Half Bath - W/C and lavy
3/4 Bath - W/C, lavy, shower
Full Bath - W/C, lavy Tub (with or without shower)
In some ares, a 3/4 is called a Full. I have never seen the term ‘3/4 Bath’ in CA.
What is a lavy? Basin/sink I am guessing from context but here that would be referring again to the toilet (lavatory).
Well if you go by original meanings, the water closet is a type of pipe that uses water to suppress the escape of noxious odors into the house, and the lavatory is the washbasin. Either one can now be used to refer to the facilities in general.
Isn’t that pretty much what a bathroom is for? To keep the noxious odors escaping your anus from infesting the living area?
Oh I laughed so hard when I read this post. Thanks, I really needed that just now.
Before the invention of the water closet, it was very rare to have bathrooms in proximity with the living areas of the house, because you couldn’t prevent the gases from backing into the house.
Another bit of trivia: high up on the outer edge of a castle wall, there would be a wooden shelf with a hole in it for toilet purposes. Enough of the waste would stick to the side of the outer wall that the smell inside the room—the garderobe—was strong enough to repel moths. Do they started storing their clothes in the garderobe. That’s why a wardrobe today is s place for storing clothes.
True. The upper classes in ancient Rome may have had indoor toilets (in addition to running water), but said toilets were basically just outhouses over an open sewer and were located as far from the living quarters as possible. I imagine that most of the time the family would just use chamber pots and let the slaves worry about emptying them. If that doesn’t squick you out public toilets offered no privacy whatsoever and everyone shared communal sponges for cleanup.
To be clear, I don’t know whether this is actually true.