Did you ever notice that we call a certain place the washroom, restroom or bathroom, even though its primary function is not washing, resting or bathing?

Euphemisms! The Europeans simply call it the "Toilet," which is certainly saying it straight, though a bit crass to Americans.

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Europeans simply call it the "Toilet," which is certainly saying it straight

Not really. One's toilet is the act of dressing and preparing oneself. Etymology Online traces the evolution of the word.

Another word that has lost its original euphemistic sense is lavatory, which comes from the Latin lavatorium, a place for washing. See Etymology Online again.

I suppose "merdeatorium" or "la place de la piss" might be a wee-wee bit confusing!

What is even more bewildering for me is that it's called 'the john'. And John is such a nice name.

Even funnier is that in Greek, in army lingo the toilet is called the 'Calliope'. Now why anyone would name the toilet after a muse is not at all amusing!

Perhaps the plumbing in a bathroom reminds them of that of a steam organ?

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Perhaps the plumbing in a bathroom reminds them of that of a steam organ?

Having experienced the eccentricities of some Greek lavatories (and their associated brightly-coloured basket into which paper must be placed for fear it will block the sewers) absolutely nothing would surprise me about Greek plumbing.

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Europeans simply call it the "Toilet," which is certainly saying it straight

I had heard that the name became common for a lavatory follwing the installation of such facilities in trains about 150 years ago. Originally there were two cubicles, one a lavatory and the other a toilet. The railway companies, conscious that space for such facilities didn't generate revenue, then installed the washing and the excretory appliances into the one compartment, which freed up space. This new dual-purpose compartment they called "toilet" and the name stuck. As has been mentioned, the older name, lavatory, is now uncommon.

Other names I've heard for bathrooms:

water closet (w.c. in french)
crapper
pot
toitie
little girl's room
powder room
the head

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water closet (w.c. in french)

And in most other European languages. It's one of the few examples of a word (or abbreviation, anyway) that the English language has given to others; usually it's English that steals other languages' words.

This thread should be added to the UK/US differences one. From the title down it seems unbelievably prissy.

Toilets are far from unmentionable here. I thought this was going to a thread about euphemisms for ladies' private parts.

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Originally posted by Graham Nice:
... euphemisms for ladies' private parts.

Tell me more. I can think of slang terms, some cruder than others, but few euphemisms. I've heard it called an "oven for lovin'." And in jokes I've heard it called a "hope chest," "garage," and "washing machine."

Tinman

Private parts? That's pretty euphamistic itself!

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From the title down it seems unbelievably prissy.

Hmmm...we aren't that bad, are we?

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Originally posted by Asa Lovejoy:
Private parts? That's pretty euphamistic itself!

Yeah! Some of those parts are becoming more public every day!

Tinman

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Some of those parts are becoming more public every day!

But often that is blamed on "wardrobe malfunction" LOL

One euphemism I hear a lot for private parts, and sometimes for the implied use of said parts, is "booty." They're not referring to me, though. I'm too old (or whatever).

Usage: Mmm, look at the booty on that.

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unbelievably prissy.

Yup, that's us - bunch of uptight, repressed word lovers.

Well, it is odd that we don't just say "I'm going to the bathroom", even. The kids in my neighborhood just say "I gotta use it". When I first started working there I actually asked a kid "use what?" and they all laughed at me.

Unfortunately we are keeping our public restrooms locked, and they have to ask for us to unlock them when needed. This is because there was so much vandalism (and other activity) in the first 6 months we were open.

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Well, it is odd that we don't just say "I'm going to the bathroom", even.

But we do, don't we?

As for 'private parts' (hey...why keep it just to women's?!), I do believe we had quite a thread about that fairly recently. In fact, I think there were some complaints that it was, shall we say, less than prissy.