Chamberpot

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A portable container kept in a bedroom and used as a toilet, especially before modern indoor plumbing became common
2. A bedside vessel designed to receive human waste, allowing people to relieve themselves without leaving their room
3. A portable receptacle placed in a bedroom to serve as a toilet substitute when access to outside facilities was unavailable or inconvenient

Etymology: A chamberpot is, quite literally, a pot kept in the chamber, the bedroom where people slept. "Chamber" came into English from Old French "chambre," ultimately from Latin "camera," meaning a room or vault, and "pot" is the ordinary word for a vessel. Put together, the compound described a container for use at night, when a trip to the privy was inconvenient or dangerous. The compound says less about the object than about the room. A chamber in earlier English could mean a private apartment of a house, so the name placed the vessel in the most private space a household had. The word "chamber" also gave English "chamberlain," originally an official in charge of a lord's private rooms, which shows how the same root moved from rooms to the people who tended them.

Synonyms: chamber pot, pot, bedpan