Twelve terms for your number two
It’s been said that the toilet makers were the “Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of their day.”
(It’s been said … by Plumbing & Mechanical magazine, and well, who are we to argue?)
Hardworking visionaries, dissatisfied with the status quo—the stinky bedpans and open pits in their lives—toiled away on inventions that would one day make history.
Today, we have improved sanitation and better health thanks to their efforts, and (what else?) we also have countless words to refer to the places we poo.
This is a messy business, but let's have a go: What are some common words for the toilet?
Let's start with loo, which is probably from the French lieux d’aisances, "lavatory," literally "place of ease." It was picked up by British servicemen in France during World War I. But, that's just a theory, as the true origin of the word is a mystery.
Another favorite possibility is that it derives from the expression gardyloo, an Anglicized version of the French regardez l’eau (“watch out for the ‘water’"). This was a warning sounded by courteous medieval servants before they splashed the streets with Pee Pee Le Poo from their masters’ chamber pots.