I live in the U.S. and in my experience on signs and in more formal situations it's called a restroom but otherwise called a bathroom although either can be used they both refer to the place you go to relieve yourself.

P.S neither really make sense as ( as least in public) bathrooms are not use for bathing and usually people don't just take naps in the rest room.

DougC wrote:If you want fancy, Japan is where it's at.

Indeed Doug, these fancy contraptions (know as 'Washlet' toilets) are a widespread thing and most modern houses have them.
They have warmed seats, and a nozzle that extends after you have spattered the pan and then squirts a jet of water up yer hoop, with pressure and temperature adjustment controls....oooooh, heaven.
I have inadvertently given myself an enema whilst manipulating the pressure controls. My god, I was cleaned outside and in. I swear that a plastic toy soldier I swallowed when I was 5 got flushed out. (Airfix 1/72 German infantryman).

I gotta hand it to you Doug, good scatological stories, well told.

I know some people don't care for such humour, but when it's done well, it can be the funniest thing. The closest I have come to a heart attack was a friend regaling us in the pub of a misadventure on a Japanese beach after a night of beer an curry and a very distressed scuba diver who popped his head up at just the wrong moment.

I have to reflect that the papers that I have had published in academic journals have probably been read by a very limited audience but the letter that I had published in Viz Comic detailing a scatological episode has undoubtedly had the widest readership of anything I've ever written.

Lucky it was not 1/32. You would have felt that one leaving!

DougC wrote::evilgrin:

Lucky it was not 1/32. You would have felt that one leaving!

Yep, especially if it was the commander figure with the outstretched arm pointing a Luger....

don't get me started wrote:

DougC wrote::evilgrin:

Lucky it was not 1/32. You would have felt that one leaving!

Yep, especially if it was the commander figure with the outstretched arm pointing a Luger....

And his other one pointing backyards for balance. YIKES, you want him coming out head first!

Rachel Bronwyn wrote:There are space toilets that double as bidets, preventing the necessity of pesky toilet paper.

But how does one resolve their aversion to toilet paper when they're out and about, I wonder?

Terry cloth and a zip-lock Baggie?

scott1328 wrote:

Rachel Bronwyn wrote:There are space toilets that double as bidets, preventing the necessity of pesky toilet paper.

But how does one resolve their aversion to toilet paper when they're out and about, I wonder?

Terry cloth and a zip-lock Baggie?

Depends on how far out and about - if there's any real chance I'm using a porta-john, my preferred cleaner is unscented baby wipes.

I won't flush them down toilets, though, nor leave them in cat-hole latrines in the woods.

Cloth and Ziploc baggie? Where would you get a disgusting idea like that?

A 'floater' in the bowl is annoying.
A 'floater' in a space suit is disastrous.

Rachel Bronwyn wrote:Cloth and Ziploc baggie? Where would you get a disgusting idea like that?

I am informed that it is not disgusting in civilized countries.

Which countries would those be? I want to be sure I'm in the right ones when I'm carrying a shitty rag in a plastic baggie with me in my pack.

You see, elsewhere, in less developed countries, such activities would be deemed rather gross.

From the latest issue of Viz Comic, the Profanisaurus (swearer's dictionary) has the following entry:

Restroom. n. US. The toilet.
"I'd give it five minutes before using the restroom if I were you. I've just had a massive rest in there."

I think I already mentioned we call it a 'wc'. Which is pronounced 'way-say' in Dutch.

don't get me started wrote:From the latest issue of Viz Comic, the Profanisaurus (swearer's dictionary) has the following entry:

Restroom. n. US. The toilet.
"I'd give it five minutes before using the restroom if I were you. I've just had a massive rest in there."

In Frankie Boyle's autobiography, helpfully titled "My Shit Life So Far", he describes how when he was a young man, he shared a house with guy who did a lot of drink and drugs and who was plainly a bit crazy. One day this guy entered the living room and announced to his housemates: "I wouldn't use the vacuum cleaner for a while if I were you. I've just fucked it."

Where I am (Hong Kong), it's a sai sow fong (wash hands room) if you want to be genteel, but a chee saw (the bogs) if you're like me. Incidentally, every village in the New Territories has a public toilet, but there is one that I cycle through quite often that has three! I can't remember its name, because I always refer to it as "three chee saw village".

I've encountered the term "cloakroom" as a euphemism used by some older British people. This harks back to the "garderobe" found in many castles.

Fascinating, and from reading about the castle shitters, I unearth the origin of the word "stools" to mean poop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_stool

Cloakroom is used more as the place the kids put their coats and bags when they get to school here to be honest, but yes, among the older and better off, it can also mean the bog.

Plenty of large houses often had a toilet at the back of the cloakroom.

Just why is it called a 'restroom'?