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People should not use the telephone in bathroom.

by philodice, December 14, 2010

Messages: 24

Language: English

erinja (User's profile) December 14, 2010, 8:02:58 PM

It's called a bathroom regardless. It's assumed that every bathroom has a toilet in it, but not every bathroom has a shower or bathtub. In real estate parlance, it's a "half bathroom" if it has a toilet only, and a "full bathroom" if it has a bath or shower in it as well. Alternate terminology for a half bathroom (toilet but no shower) is a "powder room".

The alternate (more euphemistic) name is a restroom. In someone else's home, you might ask where the restroom is. And in public places it's almost always called a "restroom" (to the endless amusement of foreign tourists; "Tee hee, I need to go take a rest!").

But the family living in a home will never refer to their own bathroom as a "restroom". Your own bathroom is always a "bathroom".

I understand that Canadians use the term "washroom" but I have never heard this term used in the States (perhaps it is used in regions other than my own, however).

---

Note that the toilet itself, the actual thing you sit on, is always called a toilet. But people never refer to the whole room as a toilet, as in "Excuse me, where are the toilets?" or "I have to go to the toilet".

acdibble (User's profile) December 14, 2010, 9:26:48 PM

The word restroom, around here at least, is spoken much less often than bathroom. It can be heard in the phrase, "restroom break" although most often it is "bathroom break". They are labeled as "restrooms" but people will still ask where the bathroom is.

erinja (User's profile) December 14, 2010, 9:36:53 PM

I also hear "bathroom break" most often.

Except in a few meetings where someone tries to be cutesy and talks about a "hydraulics break".

I mainly hear restroom in the context of an institutional or public bathroom.

rusto (User's profile) December 14, 2010, 10:30:44 PM

The bathroom thing in the U.S. has always bothered me, but I still use it myself because calling it a toilet seems equally bothersome. The whole room is not for the toilet, typically. But neither is it wholly for a bath or shower. I am certain you get a lot of requests for Esperanto reform. How about English reform?

And for the person worried about electric shock, U.S. building codes require GFCI electrical outlets. In a situation where a ground fault is caused, such as accidentally dropping your toaster into the bathtub while trying to make bubble bath waffles, it shuts off electric current to the outlet. It is similar to an electric breaker or a fuse. Where they aren't faulty you should be safe bathing with your television on a floating pillow while curling your hair. But don't do that, it's still not a good idea.

erinja (User's profile) December 15, 2010, 12:12:48 AM

I like the British word "loo" but it would sound affected to say it with an American accent.

Though I do use it in the UK, as part of my attempt to use UK vocabulary when in the UK, in order to avoid misunderstandings to the maximum extent possible.

ceigered (User's profile) December 15, 2010, 4:20:20 AM

Seriously? We just call it the toilet (well, and loo, but not in previously mentioned real-estate parlance). A "restroom" is generally a toilet facility in say a mall or big building (from my experience anyway), and a bathroom is normally the room with the bath/shower/basin kit and kaboodle, but that's not necessarily true since we do often use "bathroom" for referring to the toilet, but much less than Americans I guess (it's probably an American influence that we use it). Anyway, if you were in someone's house, "I need to use the bathroom" generally would be understood downunder, but in other contexts it gets complicated (and we might misunderstand as with Miland's suggestion).

wagg (User's profile) December 15, 2010, 7:57:13 AM

To add to the term-confusion and expand on what erinja hinted at, as a Canadian, I use the words "washroom" and "bathroom" almost completely interchangeably. I guess "washroom" could be used in a slightly more respectful context, if you were excusing yourself from the dinner table to go, for example. But neither would sound out of the ordinary (and without any formal research, I'd say are equally common) for anyone to say in most contexts, with both referring to any toilet-containing room, regardless of whether it has a bath or not, and regardless of whether it is public or private.

Additionally, we can say "restroom" as well, although this is only be used in reference to a public toilet facility, such as in a store or business, etc. and not in a home.

Therefore, if I needed to go use a toilet while in a mall, I could say bathroom, washroom, OR restroom. And I could do so without bathing, washing, OR resting! Which is quite strange now that I've analyzed it.

But we would never say "toilet" or "loo".

sudanglo (User's profile) December 15, 2010, 10:47:08 AM

In the UK, in addition to the term loo, which Erinja finds charming and is said to come from the expression gardez l'eau - used in less sanitary times when slops were thrown out of the window into the street, it is not uncommon here to refer to toilets as the bog, particularly in the case of the toilets in a pub.

Genjix (User's profile) December 15, 2010, 12:58:46 PM

sudanglo:In the UK, ...
or The Shitter, Lav (short for lavatory).

I've only used toilet (public or home toilet) or bathroom (home toilet). In foreign countries I use the international term WC.

philodice (User's profile) December 15, 2010, 1:41:14 PM

I always wash (my hands) when I use the necesejo. And many do find it "restful" to sit and read. When using the necesejo in my house, I am always near the bath tub. It is a closet sized room with water, so all the usual and international terms make sense to me.

The interesting part is the clearly "American" way I was thinking of the sentence.
How is this...

Oni ne telefonu en la necesejo.

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