Why is wc washroom

It's colloquially referred to as the john , but not politely. Usually this room is referred to euphemistically, and there are degrees of social class associated with the terms. Here are a few, in order of most to least polite or high-class. When in public and trying to be polite we ask directions to the "restroom".

Indeed, most signs in restaurants, bars and airports will use the word "Restrooms" to direct people to the toilet. My limited experience in the UK is that everyone is more literal and uses the word "Toilet".

Many years ago in a museum in the UK I asked a guard for directions to the "restroom". He said "There's no place here for you to lay down, sir. This used to mean no more than a room used for washing. It was identical to washroom. The word toilet is a euphemism. It previously was used to refer to the early morning routine of preparing for the day by washing, combing hair and applying various potions. So far as I know it did not include defecation and was therefore a perfectly innocuous and polite subject for general conversation.

It can be startling to read the word when used in that sense in older books or artworks. A woman at her toilet - Titian. A euphemism in Britain and some European countries was water closet, nowadays abbreviated to W. Taken literally it implies no more than a small room provided with a supply of water - nothing offensive there.

The British National Corpus provides these counts. It seems that euphemisms must be constantly renewed by replacement as they become tainted by association with the taboo subject.

This replacement proceeds at different rates in different countries, cultures or social groups. This means that, in time, new words must also be found for the existing meanings of words like convenience.

I'm English, and would probably use 'toilet' most of the time, and always in the context of a private home. Actually, on reflection, I think there's a subtle and complex social class issue around these two.

Not sure myself exactly how it works, but anyone using 'lavatory' is probably related to the royal family, or wishes they were. But then 'lav'is somehow at the other end of the scale.

So is their discomfort when you use 'toilet' in the US. Actually, thinking about it, I'd always use Gents in a pub, possibly there's a need to reinforce one's own gender identity! I can't think I've ever heard WC, but I've seen it used on architects' drawings, probably for reasons of space. I'd just like to agree with 2revs. For my sins, I went to quite a posh private school, and saying toilet was a definite no-no. Lavatory was the standard word, but at school most people said bog. So I was happy when loo left its original 'U' niche, and became fairly classless.

I've lived outside the UK for ten years, but I wasn't aware loo had become dated. In the military, the navy, coast guard, and marines refer to the bathroom as the head , the reason being that in the olden days the bathroom was positioned at the bow of the ship.

Although I have heard the room in question being referred to euphemistically as "The bathroom", I believe this to be an Americanism. Unless the bath is actually in there, it's a toilet, or a "loo" in more polite society. In my house the bath is in the same room as the toilet, so the room is referred to in our house as a bathroom, but one were caught short in a public place I would normally expect one to ask "where is the nearest toilet?

I don't hear many people refer to it as a lavatory any more, although maybe that's more a reflection on the company I keep. Certainly though some people refer to it as a "Lavvy", which is just a reduction of lavatory. I certainly haven't heard anyone in the south of England refer to it as a washroom or restroom, and I personally would not refer to it as such. Again, perhaps this is an American thing? I'm Canadian and we very seldom use "restroom" in spoken language, although you'll sometimes find it on signs in restaurants and whatnot.

The most common term round here is "washroom" — "bathroom" is sometimes used, but only really in a house where the room actually would have a bath. One might also say either "men's room" or "ladies' room" very seldom gentleman's or women's , but that's generally in public places where there's actually a distinction, and even then it's fairly uncommon, used most often by people attempting to be more polite.

I've never heard the phrase "St. John" in my life, and when people say "the John" they're usually trying to be funny. As far as "loo" or "lavatory" goes, I've only heard those said in either an affected tone or a false British accent, at least in Canada. I'm not sure what the original word actually was as most of today's words are euphemisms or even, as bathroom, a euphemism to avoid a euphemism.

It comes down to :. Fluoride first entered an American water supply through a rather inelegant technocratic scheme. When cities started adding chlorine to their water supplies, in the early s, it set off public outcry. Before anti-vaxxers, there were anti-fluoriders: a group who spread fear about the anti-tooth decay agent added to drinking water.

Placed in drinking water, fluoride can serve people who otherwise have poor access to dental care. In secret, before the referendum, the council went ahead and fluoridated the water anyway. Urbanity ushers in water that needs no apology, and gives a zest to the worst vintage. The two women had no intention of bathing; they had just strolled down to the beach for a walk and to be alone and near the water.

Woodbury paints in oils and water-colors; the latter are genre scenes, and among them are several Dutch subjects. Cities became filled with apartment blocks designed for lowly factory workers to live close to where they would often spend 12 hours a day toiling, and they needed to expel their human waste somewhere. Before that, people once used designated pans for doing their business in their home, and they then chucked it out their window into the street below.

Going back to the s, a water closet was a room in the home with plumbing for doing their private business and maybe even washing up. For a long time, this room could also be called the toilet. It took nearly four centuries of varying advancements for toilets to become what we now know.

However, those who travel widely in places like Europe can tell you that the North American design is not necessarily the norm in Europe and elsewhere. In those places, one might have to look around for how or where to flush. It could be a string from a suspended tank, a lever on the wall, a push button or many other types of controls. For any home that could afford one then or now, the water closet is a private space for answering nature's call.

The water closet transformed society, making it possible to stay indoors. They improved living for the elderly and the sick and cut down on the risk of disease in public.