quote:Originally posted by stationmaster:
Yes, then afterward you can go to the "Loo"
Well I ROTFL when I found out what that was. I thought it was some Oriental guy named Loo.
Very interesting SM I have always meant to find out the derivation of the word "loo"
a quick google for "loo derivation" produced a detailed and fascinating ilustrated historical theory at:-
http://www.michaelkelly.fsnet.co.uk/loo.htm
whiuch includes such germs as:-
"This is a very interesting question, and experts have debated it for years. Some authorities maintain that, like many an English tradition, the word 'loo' commemorates the death of a great number of Frenchmen, and derives in fact from the Battle of Waterloo."
British soldiers would come home and say, 'Hey, you'll never guess what, all the froggies
weed themselves and the guv'nor, quick as a flash, he goes, 'Waterloo? Water-Closet, more like, ha ha ha.'
Another possibility, however, is that the word 'loo' is an abbreviation of the word 'loony'
because the smallest room in the house was politely refered to as where a lunatic relation was kept out of view.
there are many great definitrions of UK expressions on the folowing site which should be required viewing for all Americans:-
including:-
"loo n. What we call the loo is what Americans very politely call the restroom. I believe that the derivation of this word is
from a long time ago when people used to shout "gardez l'eau" (the French equivalent of "look out for the water") and throw
their human waste out of the window onto gutters in the street."
other interesting entries include:-
"leg over n. Yep, more sex. To get one's leg over does indeed mean clambering over another person with the intention of
prodding at them"
and appropos earlier references in this topic:-
"chips n. Fries. However, it's lately been popular to call "thin" chips fries (I blame McDonalds) so Brits at least know what
fries are these days. Classic chips can be obtained from a chip shop ("chippie") and are a great deal more unhealthy. They
also vary quite creatively - if you buy them at nine o'clock in the evening they are hard, black and crunchy (because they've
been cooking since 6:30pm when the dinner rush came through) but if you buy them at 3am you will find them very akin to raw
potatoes, right down to the green bits in the middle (because they want all of these drunk punters out of the door so they
can go home). Since writing this, I have been told by a contributor that British chips are in fact more healthy than fries -
something to do with surface area and fat. Trust me, though... the British ones still look pretty gruesome"
and
crisps n.
"Chips. This particular confusion caused me no end of troubles in the US - I've never been so disappointed with a
bag of chips in my life (I'd even have preferred the 3am green ones)."
To summarise my initial entry here
It is no wonder that Brits look askance on the idea that anyone would wish to christen their child "Lou Rawls" which sounds
exactly like a bog roll
Bog???
bog n. One of our more... down-to-earth... words meaning toilet. More likely to be used in the context of "d'y'hear Fat Bob
took a kicking in the bogs in Scruffy Murphy's?" rather than "I say, Mrs. Bryce-Waldergard, I'm awfully sorry to trouble you
but I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of your bog?".
I also rather liked:-
bumf n.
"Copious amounts of paperwork or literature - you might hear people talk about the stack of bumf that came with their new video-recorder (VCR) . A contributor tells me it derives from the army and is a contraction of the phrase "bum fodder", meaning toilet paper
which neatly leads into
"bogie n. One of the charming little things everyone excavates from their nose now and again but likes to pretend they don't.
Americans call them "boogers"."
I also found during my searches that a well known Anglo-Saxon FLA (four-leter-acronym) is short for
"Felonious Unlawful Carnal Knowledge"
and finally go to:-
http://www.uberbitchblog.com/index/weblog/comments/51/
scroll down to
3.10 Most Famous uses For That Word
------------------
My Gordon Lightfoot webring
starts at
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/lightfoot
[This message has been edited by johnfowles (edited October 09, 2004).]
