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Feel free to call me a stupid yank or a wanker, but I have a question for the Brits.

I understand why an elevator is called a "lift", I kinda get why an apartment is called a "flat" But what I don't get is why you refer to the bathroom as the "loo"

where did that come from.

Now granted, here in the states we have come up with some doosies for renaming the toilet.

For instance:

if you have had too much to drink, you go and pray to the Porcelain God.

in the military, go to the Head

My Grandad called it the "Grump Stump"

But where did "Loo" come in to play?

i'm going to call Bothwell right now and ask him....but he's out walking his dog. will get back to you! LOL.....none of it makes a lot of sense, see if you can find thread "Briticisms". ......here---

^^Briticisms^^ ( 1 2 3 )

Abbey are you comin to the show, weeder is coming too? we need to meet?

I could only find one reference to why we call it a loo........



During this period, the British had an expression-"gardyloo!"-that was roughly the equivalent of the golfer’s "fore!" Gardyloo was a corruption of the French, garde l’eau, "watch out for the water." In his "English Social History," G.M. Trevelyan explains how it came about:



"Far overhead, the windows opened, 5,6, or 10 storeys in the air, and the close stools…discharged the collected filth of the past 24 hours into the street. It was good manners for those above to cry, "Gardy-loo!" before throwing. The returning roysterer cried back, "Haud yer han," and ran with humped shoulders, lucky if his vast and expensive full-bottomed wig was not put out of action by a cataract of filth."

Qbviously did'nt have umbrella's in those days!:yh_giggle

Wolverine wrote: if you have had too much to drink, you go and pray to the Porcelain God.


my favorite: talking to RALF on the big white telephone

There are many theories about this word, but few firm facts, and its origin is one of the more celebrated puzzles in word history. The one thing everybody agrees on is that it’s French in origin, or at least a corruption of a French phrase. But which phase, etymologists are still arguing about. But we’re fairly sure it’s modern, with its origin having been traced back no further than James Joyce’s Ulysses in 1922.

So that seems to dismiss entirely the theory that it comes from the habit of the more caring British housewives, in the days before plumbing, of warning passers-by on the street below with the cry “Gardy loo!” before throwing the contents of their chamber pots out of upstairs windows. (It’s said to be a corrupted form of the French gardez l’eau! or “watch out for the water!”.) And equally the late date refutes the idea that it comes from the French bordalou, a portable commode carried by eighteenth century ladies in their muffs (you will never again be able to look at a picture of a lady wearing a muff without thinking what she’s carrying inside it). It is also said that it’s a British mispronunciation of the French le lieu, “the place”, a euphemism.

Another theory, a rather more plausible one, 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 James Joyce may equally well have derived the expression as a punning reference to the battle of Waterloo, from the sequence: water closet”waterloo”loo. Or it may be that several linguistic forces converged to create the new word.

I used to see a guy that annoyed me by saying " I'm just off to point percy at the porcelain"

He was a class guy!

anastrophe wrote: my favorite: talking to RALF on the big white telephone


:yh_rotfl :yh_rotfl :yh_rotfl :yh_rotfl

that's good Anas!

Ok I have one my husband says all the time.........

I have to go "shake hands with the unemployed"- Pervert! :wah:

posted by wolverine

Feel free to call me a stupid yank or a wanker, but I have a question for the Brits.


Speaking personally I would never call a yank stupid or a wanker on account because I would invariably be accused of being anti american and not being sensitive to their sensibilities.

having a crap or going to the crapper comes from Jonathan Crapper-he who first patented the design for creamic toiletware.

Gardy loo is the likeliest origin-goes back to medeival times.

mominiowa wrote: Ok I have one my husband says all the time.........

I have to go "shake hands with the unemployed"- Pervert! :wah:


My friend always said: I have to "Hose Down the wall"!!

(He's gone now, but that little dittie always stayed with me)

surely it`s just short for WATERLOO which is used to mean Water Closet? (though personally I never use the word loo as it sounds stupid!) Incidentally, we wouldn`t call you a wanker just for that- anybody clever enough to be born on Christmas Day deserves a bit of respect!

(But why do you call roast meat `weeners` and braces `suspenders` and buggies `strollers` and nappies, `diapers` etc!)

Wolverine wrote: Feel free to call me a stupid yank or a wanker, but I have a question for the Brits.

I understand why an elevator is called a "lift", I kinda get why an apartment is called a "flat" But what I don't get is why you refer to the bathroom as the "loo"

where did that come from.

Now granted, here in the states we have come up with some doosies for renaming the toilet.

For instance:

if you have had too much to drink, you go and pray to the Porcelain God.

in the military, go to the Head

My Grandad called it the "Grump Stump"

But where did "Loo" come in to play?


I'm surprised nobody came up with what I've always assumed to be the correct answer - it short for ablution, an army name for the wash house which also housed the toilets. Clever flucker, aren't I?

I heard Yanks call the bathroom the 'John', where we in Ireland call it the 'Jacks for the males, and the ***** coolers for the females.

the one that always gets me is pissed

in uk we are pissed if we are drunk, states the obvious as you have to urinate all the time

in america pissed is angry - oh im so pissed i could pee? :yh_think