That was before JKR got "clout". The problem is that in the US we really don't have any other word to use. To me this seems absurd, since that is what you are asking to use.
Can you imagine asking a friend, "May I please use your bathroom? There are some old-fashioned "facilities" that actually do have a couch, although not in the "room" itself, but it sounds as though it is someplace you would go for a nap. I have seldom heard it in the US, but I think you would have to be incredibly isolated not to know what it means.
I've always liked "WC"! There is a story about Winston Churchill watching a ship being salvaged. The first thing to come up was the loo door with the initials WC on it. Churchill turned to someone and said "How thoughtful! The first thing they salvaged has my initials on it! In very colloquial, even childish perhaps, speech, "going to the bathroom" can also mean that you are in the process urinating or defecating in the toilet. I remember often having this conversation when I was young: My brother: What are you doing in there?!?!
Me: I'm going to the bathroom! Obviously I was already in the bathroom, but I meant that I was on the toilet. Hockey13 said:. I might say the same thing today: - What are you doing in there? What else would I be doing in here? It's one of those things we say without thinking, but now that I think about out it, it seems absolutely ridiculous!
I still say it too, but to avoid the ire of the "I don't know CAN you?? That's priceless. Usually now, we have silhouettes, for non-English speakers, I assume, though apparently pubs I don't frequent them now have 'cutesy' terms, Guys and Dolls, etc, which I believe is an old musical I think that "ladies" is often used. Whaizhya bog? Okay, these would be informal maybe a little too informal : I need to take a leak, where's the john? I need to piss, where's the john? While on the subject of loos, forum participants might find this site interesting regarding the possible origins of the word.
In nz restroom is very formal. Brioche Senior Member Adelaide. Did anyone mention "little girl's room" or "little boy's room" as euphemisms for toilet? Last edited: Aug 14, This delightful phrase gained popularity due to the habits of medieval Europeans who would shout the phrase before emptying their chamber pots out of their bedroom windows into the street below.
Over time, it became loo and was applied to the toilet itself. In France the term was largely used to refer to public urinals. Toilets provided for women in bars during this period were referred to as powder rooms… and the name stuck! Over time however, especially in the North of England and Scotland, the word privy was conflated with toilet and eventually this new meaning supplanted the old meaning.
This alternative word for toilet first gained popular usage in the early twentieth century. It has its roots amongst the English aristocracy and upper classes. It was used to refer to the indoor toilet as at the time, only the very wealthy had indoor toilets. Ollie is a self-trained DIY expert who particularly enjoys kitchen and bathroom renovations.
Rolls made from cashmere are incredibly nouveau. William pictured says Airwick should never be used in the lavatory, not even under pain of death. Bathroom boasts. What could be more British than the bathroom boast? It would be fairly immodest to have any photos of achievements, luminaries that members of the house have met and the like displayed in more public areas, but the loo seems the best place to discreetly place the old school photo, or the sideways shot of The Queen presenting you with your gong.
Obviously, the more points you score the more senior the royalty; ditto if the school photo is an Eton group school than a Rugby group one. Twee little crocheted rhymes are never seen in better class premises. Mats in the bathroom remain a slippery topic when it comes to determining whether someone is flushed with social success. Thick pile bath mats seem to appear in first or second houses of young middle classes and usually washed with too much fabric softener rendering them far from absorbent.
Whatever social rung someone is, as they get older they seem to see the light and use tighter pile mats. A special mat that hugs round the cistern of the lavatory is prissy. Thick pile bath mats seem to appear in the houses of young middle classes but a special mat that hugs round the cistern of the lavatory is the height of prissiness, says William Hanson.
Top houses tend to favour bars of soap while the younger generations use liquid soap. William says Jo Malone is seen in the upper-middle houses while brand Molton Brown belongs to the middle classes. Older generations of the PLU set will always have bar soap. Really top houses seem not to care about whether this soap is as dry and cracked as old boots, just so long as it is bar soap. According to William, Floris soap pictured is very upper class, while Bayliss and Harding belongs to the lower-middle classes.
But younger generations have now switched to liquid soap, although there remains a class hierarchy within the pump-action league. Floris is very upper notice the warrant ; Jo Malone is seen in the upper-middle houses; Molton Brown belongs to the middle classes, Bayliss and Harding to the lower-middles and the bottom will usually use a supermarket own brand.
Towels folded up is a tad middle class but thoughtful for more hygiene conscious guests often middle class who may recoil at the thought of using a hand towel that half the guests at the party have been using all night.
It is never acceptable to have a Dyson airblade installed in a private house, as one London property magnate I know has. In Europe, and other locations where the toilet fixture is not installed in the same room as the bath, the term "bathroom" is completely foreign. In these places the terms " water closet ", or simply " WC ", " lavatory ", or " loo " are the more common euphemisms for needing to use the toilet. Of course, outside the US, it seems that it is not completely uncommon, nor impolite, to ask "Where is the toilet?
MrHen is correct, much depends on location. It also depends on the child's age; as adults we understand that "loo", "lavatory" and "toilet" are all the same thing, but for young children it is usually more helpful, for them and for those around them, to use language consistently. Therefore I would encourage parents to use the more common word "toilet" in the UK as this is what the child is more likely to hear other people saying including other children, teachers, and other carers.
Making sure children can understand what's being said to them, and make themselves understood, is more important than adhering to some archaic code of etiquette. The archaic nature of the idea that "toilet" is somehow impolite is evidenced by the emergence of signs saying "public toilets" instead of "public conveniences".
Variants of those are little boys' room and little girls' room. I would never expect to hear one man ask another "Which way to the little boys' room? The term "loo" was simply not used where I grew up, and to me it feels very prissy. It's all rather context-dependent; I know people who would, amongst close groups of friends, simply announce "I'm going for a shit". Anyway, I'd say distance is the polite thing. There's nothing impolite about the word "toilet" if you want to use a word for it, but in more formal environments, you might want to use the term "bathroom" which, contrary to what Matt Ellen said, I believe is understood even when there's no hope of a bath nearby!
But by far the most context-neutral, polite and distant way to go about things, at least when you're out e. This has politeness issues too, but they're much easier to deal with: the difference between "I'll be right back" casual and "please excuse me for a minute" formal is pretty small.
Both lavatory and loo are fine, and it's meaningless to talk about which is correct or more correct , IMHO. Interestingly, these terms are quite strong class indicators in the UK: loo is more often used by middle class speakers than, for instance, toilet.
When I was young, I once mortified my parents by asking a family friend if I could use their bog. Not sure whether this is relevant, but a teacher of mine female, late middle-age and Irish became very irritated when someone in her class used the term 'loo' as opposed to toilet. Nobody understood why, but since she was widely regarded to be a lunatic, and we were quite young and timid at the time, nobody questioned it.
I've never heard this reaction from anybody since. Anyone able to shed any light on this? Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more.
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