So I was at Costco yesterday, and I remembered that I’m starting to run low on toilet paper. I walked past the paper towels (none of which are identified as such) to the familiar packages of short, thick rolls. I got one case of the in-store brand’s (Kirkland Signature) “bath tissue”. I noticed that at least one of the other brands available is called bath tissue as well. Returning home, I looked at the toilet paper I got previously, Sam’s Club’s in-store brand (Member’s Mark), and saw that it’s called exactly the same.
I can’t remember a time when this stuff was ever actually called toilet paper…on the packaging, in a commercial, in a sale catalog, anywhere. And that’s weird because I’ve never called it anything else. I don’t even know that there’s a slang term for it (abbreviations don’t count).
We’re long past the time of calling toilets “water closets”. What exactly is happening here?
Amazon still calls its product toilet paper and lists other brands under that heading (though the competitors’ labels either call it nothing at all or bathroom tissue).
For as long as I can remember, “bathroom tissue” has been the “polite” name for the product, used on packaging, while “toilet paper” has been the real name that real people use.
Similarly, what real people call simply “tissues” or “Kleenex” is sold in packages that call it “facial tissues.”
By analogy, shouldn’t toilet paper be called “assial tissue”?
That link mentions Rabelais, but doesn’t mention that he said the neck of a goose was the best arse wipe.
“But, to conclude, I say and maintain, that of all torcheculs, arsewisps, bumfodders, tail-napkins, bunghole cleansers, and wipe-breeches, there is none in the world comparable to the neck of a goose, that is well downed, if you hold her head betwixt your legs. And believe me therein upon mine honour, for you will thereby feel in your nockhole a most wonderful pleasure, both in regard of the softness of the said down and of the temporate heat of the goose, which is easily communicated to the bum-gut and the rest the inwards, in so far as to come even to the regions of the heart and brains.”
Another case of advertising people attempting to justify their existence.
You may also have noticed that Costco has cut back not only on the quality of the paper but also the number of sheets per roll. And are charging more for it.