Loo

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /luː/

Definitions

1. A compact area meant for personal sanitation and toilet activities
2. A room or small space designated for waste elimination and personal hygiene
3. A facility for relieving oneself, typically containing a toilet and sometimes a sink

Etymology: A battle that ended Napoleon's career and left tens of thousands of casualties may be the reason the British say they are popping to the loo. No one can prove it, but the trail leads most often to Waterloo, the Belgian village where Wellington won in June 1815. The word turns up late. Its first clear appearances in print come around 1940. A hint may surface in 1922, when James Joyce, in "Ulysses", runs "Waterloo" straight into "watercloset" in a burst of wordplay. That pairing is the heart of the leading theory. "Water closet" was the respectable Victorian name for a flushing lavatory, and "Waterloo" was a famous word that begins with the same sound. Calling the water closet "the Waterloo" would have been the kind of joke that sticks, and clipping it to its last syllable would have made it a nicer thing to say aloud. Major dictionaries still mark the origin as uncertain, and the evidence for the Waterloo theory is inconclusive. Other explanations have grown up around the gap, most of them pointing to France. One says it comes from "l'eau" ("water"). Another draws on "lieu" ("place"), or the politer "lieux d'aisances" ("places of ease"), or "lieu à l'anglaise," an English-style lavatory. The most memorable version goes through Edinburgh. There, before proper drains, people emptying chamber pots from upper windows were said to shout "gardyloo," supposedly mangled from "gardez l'eau" ("mind the water"). It makes a good picture, but that cry warned of slops flying through the air, not of a room. Other suggestions look elsewhere. One traces it to "lew," a dialect form of "lee," the side sheltered from the wind. That was where shepherds put their privies, and on old ships it was the side of the bow where sailors relieved themselves. Another blames the number 100, said to have marked the lavatory in Continental hotels, where the digits look a little like the word. The most elaborate story names a real woman, Lady Harriett Georgiana Louisa Hamilton Anson, Countess of Lichfield. In 1867, the tale goes, some unkind house guests moved her bedroom name-card onto the lavatory door, and everyone started talking about "going to Lady Louisa." It is a story told to explain a word, not evidence of one. The card game called loo is a different word altogether. It is clipped from "lanterloo," which comes from the French refrain "lanturelu." At least one dictionary links it to the lavatory, but most do not.

Synonyms: bathroom, toilet