Westminster Abbey<\/a>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n| 11<\/td>\n | Dunny<\/td>\n | Australian; short for dunnekin – dung house.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 12<\/td>\n | Facilities<\/td>\n | Another term used by Americans in denial of nature.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 13<\/td>\n | Gents<\/td>\n | The Brits are to blame for this one.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 14<\/td>\n | Heads<\/td>\n | Maritime (naval, coastguard etc.) term<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 15<\/td>\n | Honeypot<\/td>\n | Usually an outhouse. My assumption is that the allusion is the attraction of flies.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 16<\/td>\n | Hopper<\/td>\n | Toilets designed to function like a hopper were (and still are) found in railway carriages (cars). The allusion seems to have disembarked from the train at some point in the past.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 17<\/td>\n | House of Office<\/td>\n | Delightful term used in the 17th century. Samuel Pepys uses this in his diary.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 18<\/td>\n | Jacks<\/td>\n | Irish form of Jakes.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 19<\/td>\n | Jakes<\/td>\n | Dates back to the 16th century. Why the toilet was given this name, even the OED doesn\u2019t know for sure.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 20<\/td>\n | John<\/td>\n | Seems we like to name (anthropomorphize?) our favourite room.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 21<\/td>\n | Kakhuis<\/td>\n | South African. English borrowing from Afrikaans.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 22<\/td>\n | Khazi<\/td>\n | OED: from Italian casa \u2018house\u2019.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 23<\/td>\n | Kludgie\/cludgie<\/td>\n | Scots, northern English.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 24<\/td>\n | KYBO<\/td>\n | “Keep You Bowels Operating (or Open)”\u2014a (boy) scouting term, apparently, although in 36 years of involvement in scouting, I\u2019ve rarely encountered the word\/acronym.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 25<\/td>\n | Ladies<\/td>\n | See \u201cGents\u201d.
\n (Mrs. H. once stood outside a public toilet in Wales looking at the sign that said \u201cMerched Women\u201d and wondering if she could tell if she was merched or not. I won\u2019t explain the joke\u2026)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 26<\/td>\n | Latrine<\/td>\n | Another word for that place that derives from the associated washing. Due to my early reading of \u201cScouting for Boys\u201d, I always imagine this as a 1ft-wide trench screened by a tarp.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 27<\/td>\n | Lavatory<\/td>\n | Literally a place for washing; another euphemism coined in the 19th century.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 28<\/td>\n | Lavvy\/Lavvie\/Lav<\/td>\n | Short for lavatory.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 29<\/td>\n | Little Boys’\/girls’ room<\/td>\n | Strange one this. It\u2019s the room that\u2019s small, not necessarily the boys and girls.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 30<\/td>\n | Little House<\/td>\n | Euphemism for an outhouse. (You\u2019ll never think of \u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d the same now\u2026)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 31<\/td>\n | Loo<\/td>\n | I suspect this is currently the most well-known British euphemism for that place. Evidence of its origin is inconclusive. I favour a corruption of \u201clieu\u201d (French for \u201cplace\u201d), partly because my friends and I would announce that we\u2019re \u201cgoing places\u201d when we were disappearing to the bog.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 32<\/td>\n | Necessarium<\/td>\n | Historically, this was a privy in a monastery. Revived in the 19th century, no doubt by prissy Victorians whose education included Latin.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 33<\/td>\n | Netty<\/td>\n | Northern English. OED says \u201cNorthumberland dialect\u201d, but I wonder if it\u2019s in any way related to the French word \u201cNettoyer\u201d \u2013 to clean.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 34<\/td>\n | Office<\/td>\n | It\u2019s where you do the paperwork?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 35<\/td>\n | Outhouse<\/td>\n | It\u2019s a house without (i.e. outside). Most often, not a plumbed in facility, but a seat over a bucket, tank or pit.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 36<\/td>\n | Phrontistery<\/td>\n | A favourite of mine. Literally, a thinking place. From Greek.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 37<\/td>\n | Potty<\/td>\n | North Americans use this in a jocular way. When I lived in the UK, this word referred to the portable pot used by children being toilet-trained.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 38<\/td>\n | Powder Room<\/td>\n | Yet another American avoidance phrase. The allusion is not to a gunpowder room and the potential for explosions, but to the room to where ladies may retire in order to \u201cpowder their noses\u201d.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 39<\/td>\n | Privy<\/td>\n | An old word for the smallest place. From old French \u201cprive\u201d (private).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 40<\/td>\n | Restroom<\/td>\n | The Americans seem to have no end of euphemisms for that place. And many of them are enough of a stretch that the naming confuses. See \u201cBathroom\u201d above. In the UK, this really is a place where you rest. If you\u2019ve ever suffered from constipation, you\u2019ll realize why Brits don\u2019t see the connection.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 41<\/td>\n | Shithouse<\/td>\n | Not a euphemism. Could be a metaphor if you\u2019re talking about your teenager\u2019s bedroom.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 42<\/td>\n | Shitter<\/td>\n | Not a euphemism either. My guess is that this and \u201ccrapper\u201d were formed along the same lines.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 43<\/td>\n | Smallest Room<\/td>\n | At least this is an honest, descriptive euphemism.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 44<\/td>\n | Thinking Room<\/td>\n | Many of my articles are dreamed up (or should I say \u201chatched\u201d?) in the phrontistery (q.v.) This allegedly works for fellow Gemini Paul McCartney.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 45<\/td>\n | Throne Room<\/td>\n | It\u2019s doubtful you\u2019d wear your crown there, and it\u2019d be a very brave subject (or small child) that would seek an audience with you. Also, don\u2019t mistake their legs buckling for a genuflection.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 46<\/td>\n | Thunderbox<\/td>\n | Sonic metaphor at play here, I suspect.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| 47<\/td>\n | Toilet<\/td>\n | Yes \u2013 this is a euphemism! (link<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n| 48<\/td>\n | Washroom<\/td>\n | See Lavatory<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| 49<\/td>\n | Water Closet<\/td>\n | Believe it or not, another euphemism<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| 50<\/td>\n | WC<\/td>\n | Short for Water Closet<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Did I miss a favourite of yours? Leave a comment.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an excerpt from the lyrics to \u201cFifty Names to Give your Crapper.\u201d<\/p>\n The problem is all inside your bowel, she said to me,
\n The answer is easy if you need to have a pee,
\n I’d like to help you in your goal excretory,
\n There must be fifty names to give your crapper<\/p>\n Just sit on the jacks Jack,
\n Get on the john, John,
\n In’t lavatory, Lee,
\n Just listen to me.<\/p>\n Crouch on the can, Dan,
\n Hop on the heads, Fred,
\n Lounge in the loo, Stu,
\n And do your duty.<\/p>\n And if you can weave any of these into a better spoof of \u201cFifty Ways to Leave Your Lover\u201d, please do so in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s a while since I resorted to toilets for humour, and after writing last week\u2019s article (in which I bemoaned the beating-about-the-bush that goes on when using the facilities outside of our own home), I felt the need to compile my own list of euphemisms for that place. I did my best to limit this list to words that are… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,489],"tags":[537,667],"class_list":["post-1133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fake","category-scat","tag-euphemisms-for-toilet","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1555,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133\/revisions\/1555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} | |
![\"Abandoned](\"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Outhouse.jpg\")
<\/p>\n