Speaking of euphemisms Page 3

Quote: billwill @ July 14 2009, 9:01 PM BST

The loo in Castles was called "the Garde Robe"; Basically a tube built from stones (like a chimney) down the outside of the castle wall, with a hole for a shovel at the bottom. The 'room' was on the top of the castle wall and had a stone seat in it.

Pongy, but it worked like a compost heap, after the excrement had been in the tube a while, what was taken out at the bottom, was compost/fertiliser for the crops.

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Incidentally BOG stands for Bottom-of-Garden, dates back to the days of outside toilets.

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You know too much about toilets to be considered normal, in fact now we all know too much about toilets.

Quote: hey_nonny @ July 14 2009, 9:05 PM BST

You know too much about toilets to be considered normal, in fact now we all know too much about toilets.

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Next time you wander around a Castle, you know what those funny little rooms on the Castle wall were for.

>_<

Quote: hey_nonny @ July 14 2009, 9:05 PM BST

You know too much about toilets to be considered normal, in fact now we all know too much about toilets.

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Name means roughly wardrobe as that's where you stored your robes because the pong kept the moths at bay.

Quote: Griff @ July 13 2009, 3:13 PM BST

Samuel Johnson's dictionary (available online at http://www.archive.org/stream/dictionaryofengl01johnuoft) only uses the word 'toilet' in the sense of 'washing and dressing', for example this rather disturbing quote from Alexander Pope:

"See Sappho, at her toilet's greasy task, then issuing fragrant to an evening mask."

I can't actually find a word in Johnson's dictionary that means somewhere you shit into.

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I think they just called it a "bucket" then...

Quote: Leevil @ July 13 2009, 4:21 PM BST

Aaron's Dad?

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More silver, akturlee.

Quote: billwill @ July 14 2009, 9:01 PM BST

The loo in Castles was called "the Garde Robe"; Basically a tube built from stones (like a chimney) down the outside of the castle wall, with a hole for a shovel at the bottom. The 'room' was on the top of the castle wall and had a stone seat in it (with a hole in it of course)

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Many of them dropped straight into ditches, moats, or straight down hills/mounds the castles were built on.

Quote: Aaron @ July 14 2009, 9:34 PM BST

*licks a Double Lolly*

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Dirty git.

Quote: billwill @ July 14 2009, 9:01 PM BST

The loo in Castles was called "the Garde Robe"; Basically a tube built from stones (like a chimney) down the outside of the castle wall

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Quote: sootyj @ July 14 2009, 9:18 PM BST

Name means roughly wardrobe as that's where you stored your robes because the pong kept the moths at bay.

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Not quite. They both mean 'protect clothes' but garderobe for a toilet was another euphemism.

Quote: billwill @ July 14 2009, 9:01 PM BST

Incidentally BOG stands for Bottom-of-Garden, dates back to the days of outside toilets.

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That I didn't know, I assumed it was just named after the swampy type bogs.

See what I mean though? All the names for it are euphemisms.

Quote: Afinkawan @ July 13 2009, 2:55 PM BST

Does anyone know what the original non-euphemistic word for a toilet is?

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According to the book Thunder, Flush and Thomas Crapper: Somehow the object and place in which people excrete has always been thought of as offensive, and we have no simple direct words for them.

I was reminded that the Aussies have a straightforward term for it, the 'dunny'. According to Wiktionary, the etymology is Australian convicts' "flash" language, from 'dunna' meaning faeces.

Quote: NoggetFred @ July 15 2009, 12:00 PM BST

I was reminded that the Aussies have a straightforward term for it, the 'dunny'. According to Wiktionary, the etymology is Australian convicts' "flash" language, from 'dunna' meaning faeces.

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Good stuff. I forgot about 'dunny' so I didn't look it up. I've also heard it referred to as a 'shitter'. Obviously these are both slang terms so maybe there never was a 'real' word for it. Which seems odd as we have the word 'urinal' which is neither slang nor euphemism.