A meaningless American word?

[TheParser]

NOT A TEACHER


I thought some learners of British English might find this informative and amusing.

A British writer is being gently criticized for not using the words "toilet" or "lavatory" or "loo." Instead, she used "the meaningless 'bathroom', presumably with an eye on US readers."

1. That is to say, she may have used the American word in order to get more Americans to read her book.

2. In the above quotation, I copied the British practice of putting the comma after the (single) quotation mark instead of the American practice of putting the comma before the quotation mark.

Source: The July 29, 2021, print edition of the London Review of Books, pages 9-12. A new biography of the British novelist Barbara Pym is reviewed.

 

[5jj]

A British writer is being gently criticized for not using the words "toilet" or "lavatory" or "loo." Instead, she used "the meaningless 'bathroom', presumably with an eye on US readers."

2. In the above quotation, I copied the British practice of putting the comma after the (single) quotation mark instead of the American practice of putting the comma before the quotation mark.

]
Why did you put the comma after the final quotation mark but the full stops (periods) before the final quotation marks?

 

[TheParser]

]
Why did you put the comma after the final quotation mark but the full stops (periods) before the final quotation marks?

NOT A TEACHER.

Because in the article, the word "readers" ends with a period. And the quotation continues with more words that I did not quote. Since I decided to stop with the word "readers," I decided to use the American practice of using the period before the quotation mark.

 

[5jj]

It seems strange to use the British style in one case and the American style in two cases.

 

[probus]

In Canada, where I live, the word "bathroom" is well-understood and far from meaningless. It is a synonym for toilet.This may, however, be a regionalism.

 

[emsr2d2]

It's well understood in BrE too; we just don't use it that way. We know that if an American asks us where the bathroom is, what they actually want is the toilet/loo. The fact that we don't use it doesn't mean we don't understand it.

It wasn't as well-known when I was a child. In the house I grew up in, we had a bathroom and a toilet. They were separate rooms. If someone had asked me where the bathroom was, I would have directed them to the room that contained the bath/shower and sink. They'd have been very disappointed to find there was no toilet in there!

 

[jutfrank]

I watched a Ricky Gervais sitcom last night called Afterlife. There's a scene where a postman on his round asks the resident of a house "Can I use your bathroom?" Ten minutes later, the resident goes upstairs to find the postman relaxing in the bathtub.

 

[Skrej]

In Canada, where I live, the word "bathroom" is well-understood and far from meaningless. It is a synonym for toilet.This may, however, be a regionalism.

Indeed, because real-estate (at least in the US) uses terms like full bath, half bath, or even three quarter bath. There's even the rare 'quarter bath', which has a toilet only and personal hygiene be damned. So all bathrooms have a toilet, but they may or not have actual bathing capabilities such as showers or tubs.

 

[emsr2d2]

I watched a Ricky Gervais sitcom last night called Afterlife.

Off-topic: That show is a work of genius. I loved it.

 

[probus]

In my opinion Karl Pilkington is the real comic genius of the Ricky Gervais bunch.

 

[Tdol]

If you go on tourist coach trips in the UK, which cater for Americans, they use bathroom/restroom. I took a trip many years ago to Stonehenge and Bath and the usage stuck in my memory.

 

[5jj]

We Brits mock the American euphemism bathroom,but our toilet and lavatory are just as much euphemisms. They referred originally to a place to wash.

 

[probus]

As the long-distance American bus driver famously said on pulling into a so-called rest stop, "When ya gotta rest, ya gotta rest."

 

[Skrej]

When restroom isn't just a euphemism...

I once had occasion to use the women's restroom at a workplace and was flummoxed to find chairs and a chaise lounge in it. It was easily twice the size of the men's room, with the lounge area in a kind of foyer. You had to go through a second door to actually get to the commodes.

It was a huge letdown returning to the men's room the next time.

 

[emsr2d2]

As the long-distance American bus driver famously said on pulling into a so-called rest stop, "When ya gotta rest, ya gotta rest."

Well, there's something that never occurred to me! Is it called a "rest stop" because it's a chance to rest (particularly for the driver) or based on "restroom" and therefore the opportunity to go to the loo? I'm talking about AmE, obviously, because BrE doesn't use "restroom".

 

[Tdol]

When you gotta go, you gotta rest.

 

[Skrej]

Well, there's something that never occurred to me! Is it called a "rest stop" because it's a chance to rest (particularly for the driver) or based on "restroom" and therefore the opportunity to go to the loo? I'm talking about AmE, obviously, because BrE doesn't use "restroom".

I'm pretty sure it's the former, for the simple reason that you will occasionally see small rest stops without any toilet facilities. Rest stops are really more about resting - they typically have a few covered picnic tables and sometimes grills or fire pits as well as the toilet facilities. Often people take extended breaks for a few hours for sleep or such.

They often have signs posted prohibiting actual camping per se, and sometimes have a limit of 12 hours or similar, but it's very common for people to catch at least a few hours sleep in their vehicle. Especially people driving RVs, but even just to sleep in cars.

I've spent many a night sleeping in rest stops in my younger years. Once during a particularly hot summer night when the backseat of my car was just too stuffy, I threw a blanket and pillow down on a nice patch of grass and grabbed a few hours.

It's not a proven etymology, but supposedly the term 'restroom' came from the fact that public toilets (at least in upscale establishments) had actual chairs and sofas like the women's restrooms from above, where one could in fact actually take a rest from the rigors of dining and socializing.

All the dictionary entries I checked for 'restroom' defined it specifically as a public toilet, so in theory we shouldn't use 'restroom' to refer to the toilet in our houses, although I'm pretty sure people do.

 

[Tdol]

This might have something to do with the distances- the UK is far smaller.

 

[probus]

Yep. The bus (coach) journey from New York to LA takes 48 hours. But some people do it. They must be really scared of flying.

 

[emsr2d2]

My 17-hour Greyhound bus trip from Flagstaff (Arizona) to Salt Lake City (Utah) was more than long enough for me, and I was only 21 at the time so probably should have been hardier. It was absolute hell! I'm glad I never attempted a 48-hour trip.