Water closet does not refer to a little room, but to the fact that water creates a seal between the foul gases in the drain pipes and the room. Details in en. Show 1 more comment. In terms of social and class issues I was regularly beaten by my parents, and god-parents to say loo, not toilet. Toilet is unbearably common, and good little boys should never use it, apparently.
In a similar way, lavatory is even more plebeian than toilet. Of all international words in current usage, I believe that "toilet" is the one most widely considered non-U all over Europe, including England.
A reference: en. I heard things were different across the pond, though. As soon as the lower classes will have stopped using it, the cycle will be complete, and the upper classes might start using it again.
So silly. Cerberus - What made it even sillier was there was a quaint idea that the upper and working classes shared a preference for 'calling a spade a spade' and that only the middle class went in for euphemisms - such cross class solidarity! I've always wondered if the working class saw it in quite the same light. And of course 'lavatory' is just as much a euphemism as 'toilet'. It's simply Latin euphemism vs French euphemism.
That Wikipedia article is excellent, by the way - I'm afraid that's the way I was brought up to speak. RandomIdeaEnglish: I think there is something in that: u.
In addition, u. But you're right that many euphemisms originate in u. I do think that m. RandomIdeaEnglish: Oh, about class solidarity: w. Now I try to justify it by looking at it as an aesthetic thing, just like clothing and furniture. It's not too bad as long as you don't think U people are better people. Cerberus - Hi, it was meant as a joke, perhaps I should have said inter-class solidarity.
Although I still have an RP accent, I think most of that 'U' stuff was knocked out of me at college, as we were in a distinct minority. And I really went off it when then the 'Ya's' came along.
Our neighbourhood was 'gentrified' and they used the street itself rather like a public school BrE meaning common room, 'Ya this' and 'ya that' at the tops of their voices. Does it matter that we're wandering off-topic, by the way? Show 2 more comments. The army and air force refer to the bathroom as the latrine. Scott Mitchell. I'm English, and agree with Robusto that I've never heard the phrase St. Andy F. Thank you Andy for this answer.
I heard "St. John's" from one American guy who is from Texas. Canadians prefer "washroom" or "bathroom" the presence of a bath is not required. I was in a restaurant in Florida once when my colleauge asked the waitress where the "washrooms" were.
She said "You must be Canadian. I think in both Canada and the U. JoelBrown No, in the US bathroom and restroom are both commonly used to refer to public facilities with no bath. It comes down to : toilet - a euphemism based on a woman's morning ritual, then applied to the room and now to both the room and the bowl lavatory - means wash room and is a euphemism loo - from the French for l'eau water and is essentially a room with water, a euphemism. WC or water closet - a room provided with a water source, then applied to the actual apparatus.
Kit Grose. Did I miss it,or has no one submitted "commode" as a genteelism? Bill S. Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. Linked 6. I'm curious why "WC" as a lable for toilets is becoming obsolete. Are there reasons? The term originated in Britain, where the word closet has meant a small room for hundreds of years, but has become more or less obsolete there in everyday use.
Nevertheless, most people know what it means and some may use it occasionally. However it is still used in the manufacturing and architectural industries as a technical term to describe a flushing toilet apparatus or the room itself on architectural plans toilets are marked "WC" not least because it is a compact notation.
I would surmise that it has fallen out of use because of the delicate nature of such subjects, where one euphemism replaces another over time. When I was very young the toilet was most often called the "lavatory" "lav" or "lavvy" in slang but that rapidly gave way to "toilet" which I would say is the predominant term today. WC is seen in quite a few countries around the world! Other words usually spoken would be loo, bathroom AE but oddly enough I've even seen the term 'powder room' on a sign indicating the way to the erm toilet.
Teafrog Senior Member London. My first house in London had one - bloody cold in the winter you didn't want to linger in there! Since the Brits were masters at engineering and had a vast empire, the overhead water-flushing system and the concept of the lavatory spread around the world: you ended up with WC everywhere. I say! It has never been used much, if at all, in America. It is likely that if many, if not most, Americans saw a door with the sign "WC", they would have no idea what it meant.
Teafrog said:. Click to expand Obviously, we haven't lost the need for euphemisms to describe the place where we all perform our necessary bodily functions. The list of euphemisms is long and interesting and has changed over the years as the essential facilities have moved from outside to inside and the plumbing has improved, but that probably is for a different thread.
WC is not common in AmE where I live. In fact, at a three doctor clinic, each of their first names started with a 'W'. On the fourth door they had the initials, WC. It was somewhat of a chuckle that they used their initials and the British WC in their office to show where everyone and everything was.
Outside of this instance, I have never seen a bathroom or water closet called a WC. Less life-threatening considerations get attention, too. Indeed, that strategy has produced a measure of progress in the past three decades. To understand how much better regulations have gotten on the issue of wait times, it helps to understand just how horrendous they were.
The customs of public-restroom construction began to coalesce in the 19th century. As Greed and others have noted, this was probably not a coincidence, given that architects, engineers, and code officials have historically been much more likely to be men. As state legislators started tinkering with restroom laws in the late s, they thought about fairness not in terms of square footage but in terms of the number of toilets.
This was finally a recognition that women take longer to use the restroom —not just because they have to enter a stall to pee, but also because they menstruate.
From to , at least 21 states enacted potty-parity legislation. These laws have no doubt helped, but there are many downsides to treating wait times as a matter of toilet ratios.
But regular old bathroom-goers are probably not keen on familiarizing themselves with the intricacies of plumbing-code development.
0コメント