I just do not get it..can somebody explain to me?
2007-01-28 21:59:51 · 20 answers · asked by novagirl117 4 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
The most widely claimed source of loo is gardy loo (based on pseudo-French gare de l'eau "mind the water"), used in 18th-century Edinburgh to warn passers-by when a chamber pot was about to be emptied into the street below. However, this is chronologically unlikely, as there is no evidence of loo being used for "toilet" before the 1930s. Other possible candidates include Waterloo (the link with "water" gives this some plausibility) and louver, from the use of slatted screens for a makeshift lavatory. The likeliest source is perhaps French lieux d'aisances, literally "places of ease," hence "toilet," possibly picked up by British service personnel in France during World War I.
2007-01-28 22:05:44 · answer #1 · answered by Polo 7 · 3⤊ 2⤋
It just is... there is no *definative* answer, but there are a few theories
The word appears to originate no earlier than James Joyce's usage in Ulysses in 1922 -- "O yes, mon loup. How much cost? Waterloo. water closet." -- perhaps Joyce came up with it. Or it could be "a British mispronunciation of the French le lieu, "the place", a euphemism." Maybe loo is short for bordalou, "a portable commode carried by eighteenth century ladies in their muffs" (!!). Quinion also notes that "a rather more plausible [theory] has it that it comes from the French lieux d'aisances, literally 'places of ease' (the French term is usually plural), once also an English euphemism, which could have been picked up by British servicemen in World War One" but that there's no real conclusive evidence to support any of these theories over the others.
another theory
It's short for "Lady Louisa," Louisa being the unpopular wife of a 19th-century earl of Lichfield. In 1867 while the couple was visiting friends, two young wiseacres took the namecard off her bedroom door and stuck it on the door of the bathroom. The other guests thereafter began jocularly speaking of "going to Lady Louisa." In shortened form this eventually spread to the masses.
2007-01-29 06:06:24 · answer #2 · answered by Vinni and beer 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't know Why that particular word, but it's similar to the various words used on the other side of the Atlantic.
I'll happily use either word, depending on circumstances.
What I don't understand is Why it is that on the other side of the Atlantic there are no toilets?
There, there are many Bathrooms which contain 'no baths,' but which do contain toilets!
There is no 'toilet paper' over There, but there is an awful lot of 'Bathroom Tissue,' which is strange because there are no baths in the room behind the door on which there is a label which reads, 'Bathroom, ' with which to use this tissue!
When was the last time you went to a restaurant and decided to take a break from what you were there for and head off for a rest in their 'Rest Rooms.'
Nicely civilised is that.
I just hope that they catch the guy over there who goes around selling and installing bloody tiny baths planted in rooms marked 'Bathroom.'
Sash.
2007-01-29 08:14:37 · answer #3 · answered by sashtou 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It could be from the French - 'lieux d'aisance', water closet (Collins ED). Or it could be from the much older expression, 'gardez l'eau' shouted by people in Elizabethan times, for example, when they emptied their chamber pot out of an upper floor window into the sewer that was the public thoroughfare (that is true, I am not making it up)
2007-01-29 06:06:29 · answer #4 · answered by rdenig_male 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's short for lavatory.
Why do you call it the bathroom even if it's a public toilet with no bath in it? You might even say 'My dog went to the bathroom' when you mean he had a poo - weird.
And as for 'restroom'...
2007-01-29 06:02:52 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
The first time I heard the expression it was in an American radio show
and that was some time ago. I personally prefer pointing Percy at the porcelain
2007-01-29 06:25:57 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Us guys in the UK don't call it a loo - only the girls do (and I call it the lavatory, bog, burner or grater)
2007-01-29 06:05:24 · answer #7 · answered by Boofie 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
was originally ROOM 100 looked similar to loo
2007-01-29 06:12:16 · answer #8 · answered by Linda J 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
its from the french gardez l'eau "watch out for the water" coz people used to pour out their potties from their windows into the streets and shout "gardez l'eau" then it got shortned to "loooooo!!"
2007-01-29 06:09:35 · answer #9 · answered by Pilgrim 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's from WaterLOO, somtimes known as the water closet.
2007-01-29 06:06:17 · answer #10 · answered by Alex 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋