A few days ago I discussed the use of the the word “john” when referring to the toilet or bathroom (among other things.) Well, obviously my mind is still in the toilet, because I got to thinking about the other terms I’ve used to refer to the toilet over the years.
The term “toilet” itself comes from the French “toilette,” which meant “dressing room.” “Toilette” was derived from the French “toile,” meaning “cloth” — specifically, referring to the cloth draped over someone’s shoulders while their hair was being groomed. During the 17th century, the toilet was simply the process of getting dressed, fixing your hair, applying make-up and the like — more or less the grooming of one’s self. This gradually began to refer to the items around where someone was groomed, such as the table, powder bottles, and other items. During the 1900s in America, the term began being used to refer to both the room itself where people got dressed and ready for the day, as well as the device itself now most commonly known as “the toilet.”
The British word for the toilet, “loo,” derives from the French “guardez l’eau,” meaning “watch our for the water.” This comes from the fact that, in medieval Europe, people simply threw the contents of their chamber pots out the window onto the streets. Before throwing the waste out the window, they’d yell “Guardez l’eau!” The term “guardez l’eau” first came to the English as “gardy-loo” and then shortened to “loo,” which eventually came to mean the toilet itself.
The term “latrine” comes from the Latin “lavare,” which means “to wash.” The earliest reference to this term being used in English goes all the way back to the mid-17th century.
The term “lavatory” is also derived from the Latin “lavare,” but from the Latin variation “lavatorium,” that means “washbasin.” This began to be used in English in the late 19th century.
The term “restroom” seems to be American in origin and came into use in the early 20th century. It comes from the notion of “rest” referring to “refreshing” one’s self. About the same time “restroom” came into use, the British term “retiring room,” derived from more or less the same notion, began to be used among the upper class in Great Britain.
The term “crapper” comes from the company name “Thomas Crapper & Co Ltd,” that made toilets in Britain. American soldiers in WWI stationed in England found this funny because of the play on words with the previously existing term “crap” and began calling the toilet “the crapper.”
The toilet is also sometimes known as the “head.” Most anyone that’s been in or around the Navy, uses that term. It was originally a maritime euphemism, and comes from the fact that, traditionally, the toilet on a marine vessel was located at the front of the ship (the head.) This was so that water from the sea that splashed up on the front of the boat would wash the waste away. The first known documented occurrence of the term was from 1708 by Woodes Rogers, Governor of the Bahamas. He used the word to refer to a ships toilet in the book “Cruising Voyage Around the World.”
The movie “Psycho” (1960) is believed to be the first movie where a toilet is shown being flushed. (The flushing took place just before Janet Leigh’s character takes a shower and subsequently gets stabbed to death.)
The first toilet shown on a TV show appeared on the pilot episode of “Leave it to Beaver” in 1957, titled “Captain Jack.” Wally and the Beaver hide a mail order baby alligator in the toilet tank. Special care was taken during the filming to only show the tank and never the seat — so as not to offend people.
I’ve alway heard that if you live in the southern hemisphere, below the equator, water spins the opposite direction when the toilet is flushed. That isn’t true… the way water spins down a toilet is entirely determined by which way the jets are pointed.
At this point, this subject simply begs for one of the thousands of toilet jokes I’ve heard over the years, but I’ll spare you that and and take my usual high road by leaving you with something informative or something to ponder, like…. if you can see the handwriting on the wall — you’re on the toilet.
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