Toilet
A toilet is a device or construction for the disposal of bodily wastes, including urine, faeces and vomit. The word toilet can be used to refer to the toilet itself or the room containing it.
The word came to be used in English along with other French fashions (first noted 1681), and originally referred to the whole complex of operations of hairdressing and body care that centered around a dressing table covered to the floor with cloth (toile) and lace, on which stood a dressing glass, which might also be draped in lace: the ensemble was a toilette. Alexander Pope in The Rape of the Lock (1717) described the intricacies of a lady's preparation:
- ‘And now, unveil'd, the toilet stands display'd
- Each silver vase in mystic order laid.’
Through the 18th century, everywhere in the English-speaking world, a toilet remained a lady's draped dressing-table. As the word was adapted, especially in the United States, as a genteel euphemism for water-closet (perhaps following the French usage cabinet de toilette), much as powder-room may be coyly used today, its former usage became indelicate and was replaced by dressing-table.
Today, toilet itself may be considered an impolite word. When referring to the room or the actual piece of equipment, the word toilet is often substituted with other euphemisms (and dysphemisms) such as
| bathroom bog |
ladies’ khazi |
place of easement |
When a toilet has difficulty evacuating all of the material within it, it may become blocked, requiring use of a plunger or chemical drain cleaner.
The cover of the toilet is called a toilet seat. A toilet may or may not be in the same room as a shower, bathtub, and/or wash basin. Public toilets often have the washing basin outside the cubicle, in an area where other people of the same sex are present, or in an area for both sexes.
Outdoor public toilets (in the street, around parks, etc.) are a form of street furniture. For mixed sex arrangements, there are cubicles varying from simple devices with little or no plumbing to more luxurious versions that automatically clean themselves after every use. For men, there are urination facilities with varying degrees of privacy that usually have partitions or other obstructions to keep the penis hidden from public view. Some facilities are mobile and can thus be put in place where and when needed, e.g. for the weekend only at an entertainment venue. Additionally, some can be sunk into the ground (and thereby made inoperational) for the periods that they are less needed. The idea behind this is that some people do not like the sight of a urinal in the street, and it is easier to allow them to be hidden than to apply a mobile variety and shuffle them back and forth. This type is typically installed in entertainment areas and made operational during weekend evenings and nights. People tend to be less shy to use it at these times.
Outdoor public toilets can either be connected to the local sewage system or they can store the waste and be emptied from time to time. Many toilets can be cleaned on the spot, or at a central location in the case of a mobile toilet or urinal.
Public toilets are often free of charge, but many can require payment to be used. Payment can be accomplished by :
- putting money on an unattended plate
- putting money in a box with a slot
- putting money in the slot of a turnstile or spring-door
- giving the money to an attendant (who is usually also in charge of the cleaning)
The practice of charging for use of public toilets is the origin of the British euphemism for urination, to spend a penny.
Separation by sex is so characteristic of public toilets that pictograms which just show a man or a woman are used to indicate where the respective toilets are. These pictograms are sometimes (e.g. in California) enclosed within standard geometric forms to reinforce this information, with a circle representing a women's toilet and a triangle representing a men's facility.
The British word loo is said by some to come from “Gardy loo!” (a corruption of the French gardez l'eau! or “watch out for the water!”) issued as a warning to passers by when the contents of chamber pots were thrown from upstairs windows, onto the streets below.
There are many different types of toilets around the world. There are also many different ways to clean yourself after you are finished using the toilet. A lot depends on national mores and local resources. Two popular choices in the Western world are toilet paper and the bidet; see toilet paper for a discussion of the many alternatives used through history and in different cultures.
Some toilet areas are specially adapted for people with disabilities. These are wide enough to allow the entry by a person in a wheelchair and often feature hand-holds bolted to the wall, enabling the person to maneuver onto the toilet if necessary.
In the West, the most common type of toilet is the flush toilet (also known as a water closet or WC). However, there are many different types of toilet:
- Squat toilet
- Chemical toilet
- Toilet with built-in bidet
- Urinal
- Wall and gutter type urinal
- Big bath tub style urinal as in sport stadium men's room
- Compost toilet (dry toilet): very commonly in camping grounds and large climbing parks. Also found in some modern ecologically designed buildings.
Toilets appeared early in history. In the year 2500 BC, the people of Harappa in India had water borne toilets in each house that were linked with drains covered with burnt clay bricks. There were also toilets in ancient Egypt and China. In Roman civilization, toilets were sometimes part of public bath houses. There, men and women were together in mixed company.
The flush toilet was invented in 1596 by Sir John Harington, though it took improvements in the Victorian era (likely spearheaded by Alexander Cummings rather than Thomas Crapper as is commonly stated) for flushing toilets to become widely used. Before and during this transitional period (which extended far into the 20th century in some regions), many people used outdoor outhouses instead.
The most expensive toilet could be the one in Hong Kong. The whole toilet, owned by a jeweller, is decorated with gold and gems. It is a tourist attraction. The World Toilet Organisation was set up in 2001 to oversee the development of toilet in the world. There is a “Toilets of the World” exhibit in the International Finance Center in Osakajo-koen, Osaka. The taboo status of urination and defecation has led to the term “Toilet humour” being used to describe scatological humor.
Bibliography
- Temples of Convenience - And Chambers of Delight by Lucinda Lambton
- Thunder, Flush and Thomas Crapper by Adam Hart-Davis
