1740-60. At home, matters were a little more comfortable. Wealthier households might have an earth closet, a kind of dry toilet which ensured that waste was buried in soil, and virtually every dwelling had at least one chamber pot or a bourdaloue, which would be emptied into a cesspit (by a servant, if you were lucky).
Latrine. The word Latrine has its roots in both Latin and French. It comes from the Latin word for wash, 'lavare'. Over time, this Latin word evolved into 'lavatrina' which was then shortened to 'latrina' before eventually becoming 'latrine' courtesy of the French people in the mid-1600s.
Medieval toilets, just as today, were often referred to by a euphemism, the most common being 'privy chamber', just 'privy' or 'garderobe'. Other names included the 'draught', 'gong', 'siege-house', 'neccessarium', and even 'Golden Tower'.
Late 1700 – 1800 By the 17th century people living in towns and cities had a deep pit for burying waste in called a cess pit in their garden. The sewage was collected at night by Night Soil Men who took the stuff away in large carts and buried it out- side the city walls.
In the 1600s toilets were called "chamber pots." Chamber pots would be kept in one's bedroom, either beside or under their bed. After finishing one's business in the chamber pot they threw their waste onto the streets. The streets were open sewers; it was very common for people to get hit by waste.
We've looked into the stories behind a handful of them. The WC - Still in use today, the abbreviation WC stems from the term “water closet” which is what we used to call toilets in the Victorian era.
The word “latrine,” or latrina in Latin, was used to describe a private toilet in someone's home, usually constructed over a cesspit. Public toilets were called foricae. They were often attached to public baths, whose water was used to flush down the filth.
Water Closet
A “toilet” was just a dressing table or washstand, a meaning that eventually got flushed away when water closets adopted the moniker. In the 1880s, the earliest flushing water closets were made to resemble familiar chamber pots and commodes.
Leaves, sticks, moss, sand and water were common choices, depending on early humans' environment. Once we developed agriculture, we had options like hay and corn husks. People who lived on islands or on the coast used shells and a scraping technique.
In North America, throughout the 1700s, people were still wiping with whatever they had on hand. Most common were things like corncobs and seashells (ouch). But by the 1800s, paper was becoming more widely available. And finally in 1857, a New Yorker named Joseph Gayetty introduced and first patented toilet paper.
Washroom. One of the most popular phrases in the US for the toilet is “washroom”. Washroom is another polite way of referring to the toilet, though it is not a common phrase to use in the UK.
Loo. Meaning: (Noun) This is probably the most recognized slang for the toilet from the British.
The head (pl. heads) is a ship's toilet. The name derives from sailing ships in which the toilet area for the regular sailors was placed at the head or bow of the ship.
In the medieval period luxury castles were built with indoor toilets known as 'garderobes', and the waste dropped into a pit below.
Despite its British popularity for a slightly less crude way to call the toilet, the word “loo” is actually derived from the French phrase 'guardez l'eau', meaning 'watch out for the water”.
Loo, bog, can, head, khazi, toilet, lavatory, smallest room ……
As per the salors and vikings, the way of wiping butt is using old or damaged anchor chords or cables as the toilet paper, which is similar to the ancient French did. But the viking used the shellfish to wipe their butts, which is so similar to what the people in ancient UK did.
About 70% - 75 % of the world's population does not use toilet paper. People in some parts of the world do not use toilet paper due to a lack of trees. Some people don't use toilet paper because they can't afford it. Many people would rather not spend money on fancy paper to wipe their behinds.
If you commonly use toilet paper in your house, it's probably because you grew up in a society that does the same. In America, we use toilet paper for our hygiene, like cleaning up after using the bathroom, cleaning and clearing our noses, and more. Toilet paper is cheap, useful, and practical in our culture.
By the late 16th century, public bathing was consequently no longer widely practised in England. It also declined in other western countries from the 16th to 18th centuries. Public toilets remained in use by the English lower classes, and were often situated in bridges over rivers.
The name “John” was later derived from “Jake” and “Jack.” Secondly but most notable amongst historians, John was the name of the first man credited with inventing the first flushing toilet. John Harington was born during the time in which Queen Elizabeth reigned.
Water closet and W.C. were common euphemisms then, coming after crapper became tainted. Toilette was a fancy word for a wash-up; one made one's toilette. Toilet, bathroom, and bowl are later euphemisms, after W.C. was retired.
In the first millennium bc, ancient Greeks of the Classical period and, especially, the succeeding Hellenistic period developed large-scale public latrines — basically large rooms with bench seats connected to drainage systems — and put toilets into ordinary middle-class houses.
This is odd, given that human beings have been using what amounts to unisex facilities since the first humans walked upright. Public baths and toilets, many “gender neutral," were the norm in ancient Rome.
Tudor Toilets
Toilets were called 'Privies' and were not very private at all. They were often just a piece of wood over a bowl or a hole in the ground. People would wipe their bottoms with leaves or moss and the wealthier people used soft lamb's wool.