Which bathroom would the Quail go in?

Why do Americans call a room that houses only a toilet or toilets a “bathroom”, even though there's no bath in there? Why not call it a shower room, or a garage or something? Or even maybe … a toilet?


-I misread the Quail's Random challenge for the 20th time and decided to make a thread.

What I'm curious about is how does one keep misreading the word “random” as “bathroom”?

J_Scarbrough wrote:
What I'm curious about is how does one keep misreading the word “random” as “bathroom”?

Bad eyes and a brain that auto-corrects what I see in strange ways :)

We also call it a restroom, idk I mean sometimes they do have a bath in em, it’s just a euphemism from forever ago that ended up becoming a default term.

My question is what people these days calls a toilet a Water Closet. That's the original English name for it isn't it?

Branches of the military call it the “Head”, so you could imagine my surprise when someone walked up to me while I was working at a desk asking to use the “Head”.

In architectural drafting plans, there is a distinction between a Restroom (like Emma_Xross mentioned) and a Bathroom. Technically, a bathroom includes a place to bathe whereas a restroom does not.

Hahaha
Nice to see Quail getting more hype

Andreas_Helixfinger wrote:
My question is what people these days calls a toilet a Water Closet. That's the original English name for it isn't it?

And it's abbreviated W.C. you see it a lot on Japanese toilets.

Everyone calls it “toire”
Or you could say it the sort of rude way as “Benjo”

Butt the toilet is never in the same room as the bathtub. That's just disgusting.

Ozoneocean wrote:
Which bathroom would the Quail go in?

Clearly, the toilet with the “Quail” sign. The great thing about having a cloaca is that toilet security guards can't tell the quail's gender so it can use either room.

Maybe we need a quail gender reveal party.

Clearly the toilet with the “Quail ” sign

I'm pretty sure that is your car's windshield. XD ;)

The “head”, “can” , “latrine” are all military terms. Head is from the navy and generally refers to the fact that on old sailing ships the necessaries were at the very head of the ship.
Then of course there is that wonderfully earthy term “shitter” . Well, that is what you're going to be doing–

If going to Europe, call it a toilet, not a bathroom. Bathroom may get you a tub, not a toilet.

bravo1102 wrote:
Clearly the toilet with the “Quail ” sign

If going to Europe, call it a toilet, not a bathroom. Bathroom may get you a tub, not a toilet.
Same in Australia.
An older Aussie term is “dunny”, which I think has much older origins.

Il Italian, both the (originally French) “toilet” and the English “W.C.” (always abbreviated) are used.

The actual italian term is “bagno” that literally would translate as “bath”.
I think it originated as an euphemism in a period when showers were more rare than today (today there might be a bathroom with a shower and not the bathtub, but whaen I was a kid bathtub without shower, or shower phone in the bathtub wwas more common).

“Latrina” comes from latin and also exists in italian, but it is a pejorative. “cesso” is a vulgar word to refer to a toilet, also pejorative.

W.C is an abbreviations I see a lot here in Sweden as well. We use the word toilet for toilet and bathroom for bathroom, but we do have this alternative word for toilet, “muggen”, which means “the mug” on Swedish^^ also we have the word latrin, but traditionally only use this word for an outhouse, the dry country version of the toilet.

Ozoneocean wrote:
An older Aussie term is “dunny”, which I think has much older origins.

Ah yes, I remember that bar scene from KANGAROO JACK. . . .

LOUIS: Hey, where's your phone?

BARTENDER: Around near the dunnies.

LOUIS: You guys have a Denny's? (Denny's is a restaurant chain)

BARTENDER: No, the dunnies. The bog troff? The long drop? The thunder box?

LOUIS: You know what? I'm just gonna look for it by the bathroom.

I searched for the etimology of “toilette” and it seems that it was a compartment where people kept soap and other stuff for peronal hygiene (in French), so also originally a polite euphemism.

Quail wouldn't go to a bathroom, right? He/she/they would let it rip mid-flight like any self-respecting bird.

Tantz_Aerine wrote:
Quail wouldn't go to a bathroom, right? He/she/they would let it rip mid-flight like any self-respecting bird.

Like I said, my car's windshield.

In Plattdütsch it's either “de Lokus” (from Latin “the place”), “dat Schiethus” (literally “shithouse”) or a visit to “Tante Meyer”, which on the surface means “aunt Meyer” but is in fact corrupted French “tente majeur” (“the most important tent”) which is what Napoleon's soldiers apparently used to call it.

Of course, Quail doesn't need any of this and will just wait for a bald-headed person passing underneath. Preferably a man called John.

(Does anyone still call it “the john”, actually?)

Often a portable toilet is a John or a Johnny. There was even a company called “Johnny on the Spot”. Now it's the lame Allied Site Systems.

And of course we all remember Richard the Lion Hearted declared toilets to be named after his brother “John” as recounted in Robin Hood:Men in Tights.

Not relevant to Quail, but I shall reference the Roman emperor Vespasianus, who imposed a tax on public orinatories, and for this reason both in Italy and in France orinatories are sometimes called “vespasians” (IT: vespasiani, FR: vespasiennes).