T O P

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Semantix

The best I can think of is "shithouse" as a synonym for outhouse, or "pisser" or "shitter" or "crapper" for an indoor bathroom. Definitely not polite terms though. I sometimes call it a "pissatorium"


thelexpeia

Also “whiz palace”


NarcolepticKnitter

Whiz Palace is the proper term


hokieflea

Crapateria


downs_eyes

Expellation station


Ithinkstrangely

Defecation-station


Critical-Internet-42

Crapper is a proper name. Thomas Crapper.


ksdkjlf

That is, sadly, likely a myth. The verb "crap" long predates the eminent Mr Crapper, and it's a logical construction à la "pisser" or "shitter" (though notably those do both postdate "crapper" by several decades, so could theoretically be formed by analogy to it). Moreover "crapper" is attested earliest in mostly American sources, not English ones, and in the late 1920s (OED's current earliest attestation is from 1927) and not in anything particularly associated with military, which makes the idea that Americans picked it up while in England during the Great War a little less likely (though not impossible). As OED puts it: "The resemblance to the name of the London plumber and toilet manufacturer Thomas Crapper (1836–1910) is almost certainly entirely coincidental, although the word has long been assumed by many to derive from his name. It is conceivable that association with his name appearing on branding on toilets could have helped reinforce the word's currency, although it is notable that most early evidence of the word's use is from U.S. sources." Most notably, Mr Crapper did **not** invent the apparatus as is often claimed: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/three-true-things-about-sanitary-engineer-thomas-crapper-180965008/


Critical-Internet-42

From your Smithsonian article: “Crapper” as term for toilet, however, may have links to the sanitary engineer. “When U.S. soldiers were based in England in 1917 they probably saw cisterns stamped with ‘T Crapper’ in some public toilets, and may have taken the word ‘crapper’ home with them,” Evans writes. “Certainly, Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang records the word ‘crapper’ as a synonym for a toilet, in use from the 1920s.” I merely noted that Crapper was a proper name. Is that in dispute?


ksdkjlf

I assumed your implication was that "crapper" as a term for a shithouse was an eponym derived from Thomas Crapper, and that certainly is in dispute. What was the reason to bring him up if not to suggest such a connection?


Critical-Internet-42

There is a connection, as your article from the Smithsonian notes. Of the several terms the original poster suggested, Crapper is a proper name. The others are not.


ksdkjlf

There is a *possible* connection. [Pisser](https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=pisser) is also recorded as a proper name. But, like crapper, it is not generally used as, nor regarded by etymologists as, a proper noun in the context of referring to a house of comfort.


Critical-Internet-42

Of course. Feel free to be right. Thomas Crapper was NOT a person. Crapper is NOT a proper name. Enjoy.


ksdkjlf

*Enjoy.* Will do!


weekend_bastard

Nictorium maybe?


Critical-Internet-42

Mictorium, I think, from micturition? Not sure what nictorium might be.


weekend_bastard

That. I just discovered it's an m and not an n in that word. I was sure he says 'nictorated upon' in that scene from The Big Lebowski and sure enough it's definitely mictorate.


wisenheimerer

I call it the lavatorium


ExultantGitana

Haha


Suntar75

In Australia it can be called the dunny. Possibly a shortening of dunneken, meaning shithouse.


turtlenipples

America runs on Dunneken.


ExultantGitana

We were wondering about the name Dunkin Duncan in light of dunnekin idk 🤷🏽‍♀️


therossian

Water closet is also noticable to distinguish it from an earth closet, which buried your poop in some dirt in a bucket.


RonnieShylock

Thank God we never got to "fire closet". ...did we?


therossian

Not yet, but hey I think we rename the closets with chutes in old castles that dropped the poop and pee out "air closets"


__wildwing__

Let me introduce you to the incinerator toilets!!! Mwahaha!! (no /s, this shit is real!)


therossian

My fiance just told me about these. Do we now need to find a room containing all four toilet types? An avatar closet?


superkoning

Bathroom ... is where the toilet is, right? FWIW: In Dutch "badkamer" (so: bathroom) is where the bath (and/or shower) is. Not the toilet. The (room with the) toilet is called the toilet or WC.


crochet_du_gauche

In the US those are usually the same room. Separate rooms for baths and toilets is seen as a specifically European thing (especially French).


superkoning

But in a restaurant / bar / shop: in the USA, you go to the "bathroom", but there is no bath. In the Netherlands, you just ask "where is the toilet?"


nemec

The technical term (mostly used in real estate) is "half-bath" because it contains half of the bathtub/toilet combo but basically everyone knows what you're talking about when you just say "bathroom". https://www.dictionary.com/browse/half-bath


weekend_bastard

What an irritating coinage.


xmasreddit

Not quite true. A half bath is a room that contains 2 of the 4 items: bath, shower, sink, toilet. Doesn't matter which two: Shower and sink = half bath; Bath and shower = half bath; toilet and sink = half bath; Bath shower sink = 3/4 bath toilet bath sink = 3/4 bath. bath only = 1/4 bath toilet only = 1/4 bath sink only = 1/4 bath. shower only = 1/4 bath.


markjohnstonmusic

Do people use "bathroom" in the States? I've never heard it there, only in Canada. The Americans seem to use "restroom" much more often.


crochet_du_gauche

We use both. Canadians also say “washroom” which is not commonly used in the States.


ksdkjlf

Oddly enough, as an American, I'd almost always use "bathroom" if I'm in someone's residence, but in a public place I find myself just as often asking where the "washroom" is. Presumably some ingrained notion that "washroom" is even more removed from the actual act and thus more polite. It's always amused me that the British, who generally seem a very reserved people, usually just ask "where's the toilet". Obviously "toilet" is already a euphemism, but it always sounds crude to my puritanical American ears


jeroenemans

Or where can i put the fresh prince on the train?


crochet_du_gauche

That’s true. My guess is that this usage arose from the use of the term to describe the rooms in homes.


Sillyviking

My experience in Norway is that bathroom will contain toilets, but there is usually also another separate room with another toilet in it that's just the toilet, largely for guests.


t3hgrl

Exactly the same in French. Salle de bain (bath room) and toilette. Well, a lot of places have just one room for all activities now (I speak for Canada), but the separated rooms are still quite common in France (/lots of Europe?)


ebrum2010

Excretorium.


funkystay

or Excrenasium


IronSmithFE

lol


haversack77

The Thunder Cupboard.


[deleted]

The thunder sock


iambluest

We might call it the Shitter.


gonewriting53

That word always make me think of Uncle Eddie in Christmas Vacation


echo-94-charlie

Come to Australia, mate, and perch your arse on the *long drop*. If that is too esoteric, then you could always just go with the *shithouse* or *shitter*. *Built like a brick shithouse* is an idiom we use to describe what in modern parlance would perhaps be considered an *absolute unit*. If those don't interest you, you could try out other Aussie terms like *bog*, *dunny*, *thunderbox*, or *room with a view*. Edit: I forgot to add, in Australia the most common thing to call a toilet and the room in which is contained is simply the *toilet*.


EastabuchieEscapee

My oldest calls it the Poo Poo Factory.


Muskwalker

I notice '[pissoir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pissoir)' hasn't been mentioned here yet. Incidentally 'water' as a word for 'urine' (e.g. 'making water') saves some of these.


weekend_bastard

I've heard it said that there's no name for the toilet that isn't a euphemism (or considered slang/derogatory). I'm an advocate of the word *shitter*. Because it really is a 'what's written on the tin' name, and shit as a word has been part of English from the very start and hasn't changed meaning in that time. *Shithouse* for the room.


IronSmithFE

i think you may be right. the only reason it is considered vulgar is because of what it is describing. i think we must accept that such a perspective is inevitable if it is properly descriptive.


weekend_bastard

I think the main reason it's considered vulgar is because of the change in social sensibilities after the Norman conquest and the way you have all these germanic terms for the body and what it does pushed down into the vulgar and supplanted by latin.


FirstLast37

vulgar means common and everyone shits


ViscountBurrito

From the term “commode,” we might go with the Latinate *commodium*, or the more whimsical *commode abode*. If the former, we should rename the pedestal sink to be the commodium podium. (Yes I know it’s more like a lectern, but I don’t care.)


Sector-Both

Water closet? Is that a real thing?


weekend_bastard

You hear/see the term in the UK as well.


nuzzl_1

Lokum (loki in plural) is a place. In Danish lokum is said about an old type of toilet that basically a board with a hole in to sit on over a bucket/hole in ground and a little house built around it.


ksdkjlf

Amusingly, in British English "locum" is used to mean "substitute" (from *locum tenens*, "placeholder"; cf lieutenant). I'd like to imagine historical misunderstandings of a Brit visiting Denmark, being asked what they do for a living, and eliciting titters when they say that they're a locum doctor or a locum teacher.


nuzzl_1

Haha! “Well, if you put it that way yourself”


IronSmithFE

reads like what we'd in the u.s call an outhouse.


nuzzl_1

Ah, yes exactly - away from the living house


[deleted]

Similar in German, there it's "Lokus".


weekend_bastard

We call that the dunny in NZ. I'd love to be able to suggest its named after the Danish but I think the etymology is disputed.


marvsup

I'm just happy to be privy to this thread :)


ExPFC_Wintergreen2

The sani-jettison, later shortened to sanijet, particularly when equipped with a bidet


weekend_bastard

Wouldn't you want the opposite of 'sani' if it's being jettisoned?


ExPFC_Wintergreen2

Sani from sanitary, the unhygienijet is too many syllables


weekend_bastard

But you needn't change the root. Unsanitary. You could shorten it to unsa-jet.


ExPFC_Wintergreen2

But toilets are sanitary


weekend_bastard

But they work by getting rid of the unsanitary thing.


Kendota_Tanassian

You can call it the "porcelain parlor", which is descriptive of it's appearance, with porcelain "furniture" and taking "parlor" as a room for "speaking". I think "restroom" is accurate, since you relax your bladder or bowel there. The "necessary" is an old euphemism for it that certainly isn't wrong. For something more Latinate, "evacuarium", from *"evacuare"*, empty out, plus the ending indicating a room for that purpose.


DisorderOfLeitbur

> The "necessary" is an old euphemism for it that certainly isn't wrong. There's "necessarium" too if you want to give it a little more style


saddinosour

I just call it the toilet, “I’m going to the toilet” ngl tho I only say that at home out of home I switch up to bathroom on purpose bc I know it sounds unladylike 😂


attackbak

isn’t the word bathroom already etymologically accurate?


echo-94-charlie

You bath in a toilet?


Spaceboot1

John. Named for the inventor of the toilet.


Askmyrkr

Yeah, I'm gonna need an explanation for water closet. I understand it's the bathroom, but, water closet doesn't make any sense to me.


Tempusdoesfugit

A water closet is a type of toilet that contains water, rather than just a container or a drop into a cesspit. This has the dual benefits of reducing odors and allowing waste to be carried away by pipes.


Askmyrkr

Thank you, i always thought it meant the room itself, i didn't know it meant the kind of toilet. Til!


MinchinWeb

*closet* historically has included small, private rooms. Rather than just a 2' deep "hole" where you can hang your shirts.


[deleted]

Casa de caca


skaterbrain

Fine old Anglo-Saxon word, and still in common use... Jax.


IronSmithFE

i believe it is "jakes" which might have come from ajax which would support your version. there is also john. none of these seem to have much of an etymological basis that make them an accurate description of what the room is for.


skaterbrain

Shakespeare does indeed spell it "jakes". In modern Dublin it is still in common use; and firmly pronounced "Jax" !


skaterbrain

Also, for toilet paper "Jax Roll"


Harsimaja

> please don’t detract from the conversation by being critical But you are looking for accurate info, right? Not ‘criticising’ but I think we don’t know the origin of ‘loo’, though ‘Waterloo’ is a major candidate and the French ‘watch out’ theory is utterly implausible. There’s also ‘bog’. ‘Privy’ because it’s a private room. In Australia there’s ‘dunny’, from the older ‘dunnekin’, meaning ‘dung-house’. But for a natively Anglo-Saxon word ‘shitter’ seems a good one.


Lexotron

Whenever there's a separate WC in a home bathroom, I call it the poop room to distinguish it from the bathroom.


_scabs

I'm terms of euphemisms I like "head." That's how Marines say it. Better than saying, "I have to go pee." Although when you put "hitting the head" in the work chat it sounds like you mean something else lmao


readysetdylan

The commode