Chamberpots

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Open receptacles kept under a bed for urinating at night, especially before indoor toilets became common
2. Portable bowls used as toilets in a bedroom so people need not go outside or down the hall at night
3. Small basins or pails placed in sleeping quarters to collect urine, often made of porcelain or enamel

Etymology: "Chamberpots" is the plural of "chamberpot," a vessel kept in a bedroom for use during the night, when going out to a privy was inconvenient. The word is a plain compound: "chamber," meaning a private room or bedroom, joined to "pot," a rounded container. Its name thus records exactly where it lived, not what it did. The "chamber" half comes from Latin "camera," meaning a vault or room, which passed into Old French and then English, where it kept the sense of a private apartment. Because a chamber was where people slept and dressed, anything kept there took its name from that setting. Other chamber compounds, such as "chamber music," follow the same pattern of naming something by its place.

Synonyms: chamber pot, potty, po, jerry