"Damn immigrants need to learn proper english!"

[formergothardite]

This thread has turned comical, and the funniest part is nobody really took the time to read what I posted.

Neither did you. Are you going to answer my question about the deaf teen we know?

[Guest Anonymous]

Another one who can't stand the phrase 'innit'.

We also call pants trousers (pants are underpants and girls' ones are also called knickers).

I never knew rubbers meant condoms in the US for years. When I was a child I was always very puzzled that they were called 'erasers', it seemed so ridiculously specific.

Fanny means vagina here. It kills me when Americans talk about 'fanny packs' (which we call bum bags).

Rubbers are condoms here in Wales now, too, aren't they in England? I learned this in a discussion about Girl Guide badges with the younger staff at work. I was extolling the virtues of my rubber collection, with specially scented banana ones and all sorts of novelty shaped ones, and I was laughed out of the office....

Daft as a brush, as my Grandma would say....

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Thought of another one. We call trash cans dustbins and trash rubbish. And we never say, "I'm going to the restroom." We say it like it is and that we're going to the loo!

Well, "restroom" isn't always standard in the US either! We need lots of ways to say that - "bathroom" (possibly the most confusing, really), "washroom," "powder room," "the ladies' room," "the ladies," "the facilities..."

I like to say "I need to use the euphemism" around friends.

[Guest Anonymous]

Thought of another one. We call trash cans dustbins and trash rubbish. And we never say, "I'm going to the restroom." We say it like it is and that we're going to the loo!

We post our parcels via the Royal Mail service, while you lot mail your letters via the US Postal Service.

[valsa]

And we never say, "I'm going to the restroom." We say it like it is and that we're going to the loo!

I'm not sure that counts as "saying it like it is". Isn't "loo" just as much of a euphemism as "restroom"?

[freejoytoo]

Rubbers are condoms here in Wales now, too, aren't they in England? I learned this in a discussion about Girl Guide badges with the younger staff at work. I was extolling the virtues of my rubber collection, with specially scented banana ones and all sorts of novelty shaped ones, and I was laughed out of the office....

Daft as a brush, as my Grandma would say....

Are they? I've never heard condoms being called rubbers in England.

On another note, I never got to try the condom on banana lesson in PSME :( My class did get to watch this though...

[Witsec7]

This thread has turned comical, and the funniest part is nobody really took the time to read what I posted.

Daft as a brush.

[freejoytoo]

I'm not sure that counts as "saying it like it is". Isn't "loo" just as much of a euphemism as "restroom"?

Loo means the same as toilet.

[Witsec7]

Loo means the same as toilet.

I use public convenience for restroom and loo for toilet.

[Artemis]

Talking about toilets (or loos, as I would call them) it always amuses me when I see the signs 'Male Toilet' and 'Female Toilet'

I mean, what are the secondary sexual characteristics of toilets?

Men's Toilet and Women's Toilet, please. Otherwise it's the toilet that has the adjective applied to it, not the potential user.

[JesusFightClub]

This thread is making me LOL. And as a hybrid Scots/English speaker, I apologise to all the "innit" haters. I use that. "Gonnae open the door, innit".

I was caught on video today and despaired when I saw the playback as I use that exact phrase. *blush*

I loved the Yorkshire dialect in the thread! That's so cool. I think in honour of Geniebelle FJ should have a day of typing EXACTLY how we speak....

[valsa]

Loo means the same as toilet.

So does "restroom" (well, it's actually more like "going to use the toilet")

[freejoytoo]

My posts will be boring. I don't think I have any fun idioms as my accent is just posh English. I do know some Bristolian and Scouse slang though and when I was little and I was put to bed, it was called 'going bobos'. I don't know if anyone else knows that.

I didn't know about restroom. It's just a strange word to me - I mean, you don't go there to have a rest! I usually just say that I'm going to the toilet anyway!

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Are they? I've never heard condoms being called rubbers in England.

I wonder if it might be a generational thing, what with the internet and media making the world smaller these days?

I know in Japanese there are plenty of words that were common when I was young that were loanwords from either British English or from Dutch (many of the earliest non-Chinese-character-world loanwords into Japanese are from Dutch) and they've been replaced with American English borrowings among younger people, so they seem to be slowly transitioning over. The word that's common to me and my peers marks us as old-fashioned now.

Speaking of which it used to be common to see signs for the "W.C." in Japan (or on slippers for use in the... room with the toilet in it) but apparently that's now far less common also.

Is the "loo" the actual porcelain throne itself? I recognize "go to the loo" but after another conversation about toilets similar to this (yeah, we see where I hang out now! :P) a lot of the non-American people thought the whole idea of specifying a ROOM to really just mean an ACTIVITY was odd. In the US, it's perfectly valid to say "the dog used the bathroom on the carpet" to mean "the dog peed on the carpet" - there is no actual trip to the room with the toilet involved, but that's the euphemistic thing to say.

Of course then we can talk about all the wonderful euphemisms for the act itself, like "make." Talk about confusing.

[freejoytoo]

I'm fairly young and none of my peers call condoms rubbers. Sometimes we call them johnnies.

I find it weird to call going to the toilet going to the bathroom for the reasons you've stated.

[valsa]

I didn't know about restroom. It's just a strange word to me - I mean, you don't go there to have a rest! I usually just say that I'm going to the toilet anyway!

But that's the thing- if you say "restroom" in th U.S., no one thinks you're going in there to rest. We all know what you're going in there to do, just as much as people in the U.K. know what you're going to do when you say "loo" or "toilet". We don't even have rooms you go to rest in (well, except maybe bedrooms)

Now, you might have something if you want to analyze the phrase "going to powder my nose".

[freejoytoo]

I'm just wondering where the word stems from, as everyone knows it's not a room to rest in!

[valsa]

Of course then we can talk about all the wonderful euphemisms for the act itself, like "make." Talk about confusing.

Is "make" an American or non-American thing? I'd never even heard that euphemism until I was, like, 17 and I'm in the U.S. If it's an American thing, I wonder if it's regional.

[valsa]

I'm just wondering where the word stems from, as everyone knows it's not a room to rest in!

This is an interesting article on the subject, though it doesn't give a very satisfying explanation-

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... oom-anyway

Restroom. Originally meaning a public toilet, this seems to be of American origin, with the earliest usages found around 1900. It’s an extremely common usage, and also one of the vaguest. Rest of course has a number of meanings, but this is probably in the sense of "repose" or "refreshing oneself." A slight variation is retiring room, a lovely upper-class Briticism from the 1930s

However, it's ultimate origin isn't much different from "loo" (basically it seems that the origins of both names were "how to say 'somewhere I can shit or piss' in polite company")

Loo. This is a British euphemism that’s been taken up by other English speakers. Cecil addressed this earlier, in his column on the john, but we include it here for completeness's sake. Its origin isn't known for sure, although it's probably just from the French l’eau, meaning “water.†Another possible origin is bordalou, a portable ladies’ privy looking something like a gravy boat and carried in a muff. There was also a medieval expression gardyloo, probably derived from the French guardez l’eau, meaning “watch out for the water!†– which is what one might yell to alert passers-by when one was tossing slops out the window. Another possible origin for loo, although less likely, is from the French lieu meaning “place,†as in lieu d’aisance, a French term for toilet. There are also highly improbable stories of loo's arising from the name of a hated countess Louise or from the battle of Waterloo. However, the OED does cite some wordplay from Ulysses (1922) in which Joyce juxtaposes “Waterloo" and "watercloset.â€

[JesusFightClub]

Because I are classy, I have been known to say "I'm going for a piss". But if I am being polite I will say "I'll just be away a wee minute". Course, it's LITERALLY a "wee" minute, but who needs to know the fine details if they aren't close pals?

[valsa]

Around friends I just say "I have to pee" and I had a co-worker I've known for two weeks say that exact thing to me yesterday (and I didn't think anything was weird about it) No one I know ever says "I have to go take a shit" though.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Is "make" an American or non-American thing? I'd never even heard that euphemism until I was, like, 17 and I'm in the U.S. If it's an American thing, I wonder if it's regional.

I think it's from New York City (at least that's where I read it the most).

[JesusFightClub]

Around friends I just say "I have to pee" and I had a co-worker I've known for two weeks say that exact thing to me yesterday (and I didn't think anything was weird about it) No one I know ever says "I have to go take a shit" though.

Yes, strange! I only ever knew one person who did that (a Canadian girl). She would also say "The turtle's head is peeping out" for "I SERIOUSLY need to shit right now".

[freejoytoo]

:lol: The turtle's head is peeping out? Not that I ever tell people but if I did I would just say I needed a poo.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Because I are classy, I have been known to say "I'm going for a piss". But if I am being polite I will say "I'll just be away a wee minute". Course, it's LITERALLY a "wee" minute, but who needs to know the fine details if they aren't close pals?

Heh. If you'd not pointed out the "wee" minute, I was going to!!

I often say "I have to pee" or just "gotta pee" or "lemme go pee, I'll be back in a minute" among informal friends and work mates.

As a child I had a neighbor who would say, when he really "had to go," "Man, I gotta piss like a racehorse" which my childhood self found awesome.

I also hear frequently "I gotta take a leak."

Among kids in the US people refer to urination as "#1" and defecation as "#2." So you might hear "Mommy I gotta go to the bathroom" "#1 or #2?"

This has led to quite some jokes at my workplace where something ends up #2 (on a list or whatever) and it happens to be something people think is full of "BS," so there will be comments about how yeah, you're not kidding that's #2. But for some reason there are a lot of poop jokes in my office...

As for SAYING it's time for #2 I might say "I need to poop" in the same places I'd say "I need to pee." But I might just say "I need to pee" to cover it all.

Silly expressions do abound, though, gotta laugh at "I need to lay some pipe..."

Also now that I see "the turtle's head..." up there I'm reminded of "my teeth are floating" for when you really, really, REALLY gotta go.