The Loo
Why do the British say the “loo”?
Comments
429 Comments and 58 threads on “The Loo”
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Latest Lesson - Alaska
In honor of Sarah Palin resigning today.. here is a video on Alaska. Please...
Recent Comments
ling ling on Alaska
edy darko on Alaska
originalistrick on Alaska
zack on Alaska
fredjr on Alaska
hotrocky on Alaska
leonard on Mind your P’s and Q’s
darlingj on Alaska
hs4mm on Alaska
gab560 on Alaska
holeymoley on Alaska
Forum Discussions
pennsyltucky9 on River Sports -- Canoeing, Kayaking, Rafting (11)
Chemikal on YouTube's Most Popular Category (182)
Capman911 on YOUR BIG CHANCE TO STAR IN MEGA PRODUCTION PORNO MOVIE!!! (13)
greatestpotential on YT Music and Videos (203)
leonard on History of English and other languages (4)
Nice toilet humor! Of course, “eau” is pronounced like a long vowel “o” in French. As for “lieu,” it is pronounced like “lyeu” where ‘y” is a consonant and “eu” sounds a lot like the “oo” in the English word “good.” I don’t know why the French would say “Gardez l’eau !” as that would mean to keep the water, not get rid of it. Unless “gardez” is a shortened form of “regardez”–though that sounds iffy to me.
think tank.
And can I say that loo is a regional word and much of Britain as far as I can tell does use the word toilet.
the loo and bathroom and W.C so what does W.C means?
W.C means is short for water closet. don’t know why though…
Water Closet (often abbrevaited as WC all across Europe) is a polite form of euphemism for the toilet, that probably came about from the “smallest room” being little larger than a closet, and having a water tank for flushing purposes.
In fact I’m going to challenge Marina on this one, because I think the derivation of Loo comes from this.
Water Closet was sometimes referred to as the Waterloo (after the famous battle) as an even less offensive euphemism, which then got shortened to Loo. QED.
BTW, I grew up near a town called Waterlooville, which was supposedly built up around a camp of soldiers returning from the great battle.
wut is da different between trip and travel
my 7 yr old brother calls it the wee wee house
awsome, sadly i have always wondered about the origin of this word, thanx teach
the John
Dear Teacher,
Oreilly has done it again, what does “Lagubrious” mean?
Dear Teacher,
Bill has done it again ! What does Lagubrious mean?
funny word
Dear teacher
“Garde à l’eau! Garde à l’eau!” which means:Get away from here, I’m gonna wash your hair with my urine
Thank you for this very interesting lesson
Amicalement
Don Felipe
How abou tthe word BURST……BURSTING…
the ‘ THUNDERHOUSE ‘
the BOG
going for a DUMP……..spending a penny
cockney slang…….Jimmy riddle …….
oxoxoxooxox
Looks like all the best and most-used euphemisms for toilet are present and accounted for except one: “the hopper.”
Luv you honey!:)
Still getting caught up. Words for toilet: can, crapper, john, head, WC, water closet, latrine, commode, outhouse, (bidet ?)
How about John, outhouse or the sand box.
Well, Marina, the military calls it a latrine and also the head. I’d like to know where the term “the head” came from?
Hi lambeausouth,
For a nice report on this subject, scroll down this page to CaptainJack’s comment of July 4th, 8:50am. It’s all very well outlined and I was surprised by what I learned there.
Cheers.
I have also heard people calling the Loo as
“the JOHN”,
“the TOILET”,
“the LAST HOUSE’,
“the HEAD”,
“the MEDITATION ROOM”,
“the TORPEDO BAY”
“the THINKING ROOM” and also
“the THRONE”.
Thanks Marina, you’ve gotten’ me much more interested in Etymology.
Keep up the GREAT JOB.
Other words for “loo”.
Americans seem to say “bathroom” or “restroom” when they come over here. Like in can I use your “restroom?” This cracks us up in England. Like you want to rest or take a bath in there!! Like you must be crazy dude – but we try not to laugh.
Other words – er -
karzy, kazi, carsey (Brit version of English – from Italian, casa = house, according to my dictionary).
Shithouse. Also brick shithouse. As in the phrase “built like a brick shithouse” – meaning – well it isn’t in my dictionary – like it was built very stoutly – often to refer to a person – presumably from the time when a lot of people had a loo at the bottom of the garden made like a shed – to have your shithouse made from bricks – well that was the bogs dollocks.
The bog
Can’t think of any more just now.
Nick
Heya Marina,
just wanted to suggest the word “farfetched” Thx if u do
from Souljablacc66
Aka (youtube acc) Vgwiz28
Yes. I remember where that came from.
Someone asked why Americans call LIEUTENANTS “loo-tenants” (lol loo tenants)
and why the British call them “lef-tenants”.
I heard somewhere that the reason is because they don’t want to have the “loo” in such a high title.
That was probably way off, but still.
Can’t believe people used to dump stuff out on the streets like that. At least the plague taught everyone a tough lessson.
Great lesson again.
As Marina stated in her loo video, “lieu” means place.
The word tenant means “holder,” such as a lease holder, or tenant, of an apartment (or flat).
Lieutenant literally translated is place-holder. It generally means someone holding the place of his/her superior, one who whose authority is to be obeyed in as if it were of his superior, or one acting as a deputy or next-in-command.
In military parlance, the rank of Lieutenant is just under Captain, but it could also be a Lieutenant Commander or Lieutenant General. Outside of the military, there are Lieutenant Governors.
Unfortuantely, I’m not able to find any information on the pronunciation of “lef-ten-ant” except that it was spelled with an F as far back as the 1300’s.
I did a lesson on that word Arx Virtus, it was pronounced with an F as the British thought they heard a WUH sound when the French said lieu.. and that gradually became became v or f sound to ultimately the f sound.
Here is the video: lieutenant
I think it might be related to the letters U and V.. and the letter W (double U???), they are Vs not Us
I will be doing a video on that shortly as well.
I wanna know where did the world “jawn” come from
How many quatloos does it take to exchange 100 flurdiflatts?
you can prolly find out either at http://www.quatloos.com/
or in Nigeria…
Depends on the strike price of 129 sickles set on the Showgart Exchange on Tuesday at noon.
It must be a guy thing..but one of my all time fun movies is the “Hunt for the Red October”
In the movie the US Navy sonar guy’s states the Russian Sub is pulling a “Crazy Ivan”
It that a real expression used by submariners or is just made up for film.?
Anyway, you are the most innovative and enjoyable website I visit every day.
Please keep up your great work!!!!
I wish you the very best!
scelfo79
Hello CaptainJack,
I’m bringing the bottom discussion about intelligence up here.
From her command of the English language and reading her comments, I venture a guess that Marina’s intelligence is above 150 or Genius level. Remember Edison’s quote; “Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration”.
On the web you can find the top most recent intelligent women. Two gorgeous intelligent women from several decades ago that come to mind, and there are many, is Marilyn Vos Savant who reportedly has an IQ of 186+ and Jill St. John, a Bond girl, with a reported IQ of over 150.
Lots of fascinating women, and we are privileged to be in the company of a new star.
Tnks pedantickarl.
Well Im sure Marina would qualify for membership in Mensa. You only need 132 or so. Regardless what her score would be she is very smart, fun, driven to goals, caring, responsible, etc. Which are all great factors I like to see in people, especially in women. It really hard to spot intelligence physically. I see a pretty girl walk down the street and automatically I think of her as being another sheeple. I see a lesser attractive woman thinking she might be smart and find out she is also a sheeple. Even when I watch Marina’s video I don’t see her intelligence right off the bat. Its only when she speaks and writes in her blog then I see the intelligence. So this total sumps me when I go out dating. Im alway thinking can I have an intelligence and fun conversation with this person? Usually I figure this out by the first or second date. I also keep sex completely out of the picture. People make a lot of exceptions when sex is involved. Going back to my original test that I do when dating someone. I use the two brains in a jar theory (you know like in Futurama show). If I can have a wonderful fulfilling relationship with a woman as just to minds in a jar, then that my test. Anything less would be just well unfair. Its just going through the motions of being a couple.
Yes there is more to that, but two minds in a jar is a good start.
Yea I see Miss Marina as a star. She will go far in her journey where ever that takes her.
Hope the my rant wasn’t boring you. I’m sorry if do. Just speak your mind and let me know.
OH I’m sorry Capitan. I fell asleep…could you repeat that please? LOL.
Did I read were Marina or someone had asked if other Countrys have 4th of July?
duH.. yes. Right after the 3rd and before the 5th. Duh..
FYI, Roadrunmch, these videos will illustrate why I urge you to get a basic background and understanding of the science you challenge before you start asking questions or coming up with logical explanations for gaps you perceive. It’s easy to step in something……
Ignore the inflammatory title, and listen carefully to the content, please – and I ask you nicely, please. I’d like to know your thoughts on it.
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS5vid4GkEY&feature=related
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=istxUVBZD2s&feature=related
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdEZTdOlGss&feature=related
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjFeVwuJB7I&feature=related
There are many more…. and they’re not exclusively about biological evolution…. but, they are apropos of your assertions that evolution says skin evolves into eyes, or that life came out of mud or that nobody proved that life could be made inside a light bulb. Those are statements that are well beyond ludicrous. And, I tell you that NOT as any type of attack or insult. I say it as a friend metaphorically pointing out when his friend has booger showing in his nose or his zipper is down. You need to know it.
“Le lieu” sounds more likely. Firstly, lieu sounds more like loo than “L’eau” does. L’eau sounds more like “lo.”
Secondly, Many English words came from French during the period of Norman rule over parts of Britannia. For example, do you know why we call meat from a cow “beef”, meat from a pig “pork”, and meat from a deer “venison”?
Beef is from Old French “boef” which is from the Latin “bos” which means cow.
Pork Old French “porc” which is from the Latin “porcus” which means pig.
Last of all, venison from Old French “venaison” from Latin “venation” (meaning a product of hunting).
The British lower classes just used the word of the Norman ruling class.
Prolly Dutch, iffin you aks me.
Hi Marina! I would like to request; where did the origination of the word “HOTEL” come from? Happy 4th of July to you!
Dobre Utra! (I think it’s spelled right this time).