Toilet

Etymology and terminology

Like other French modes of the years 1680, the word “toilet” was employed in many countries, and indicated in the beginning the objects of hairstyle and Soin of the bodies laid out on a Table to equip covered with fabric and Dentelle, on which a Miroir was held which could also be draped of lace: the unit was a toilet .

The word toilet was adopted by Euphémisme for “ toilets closet ” since the expression “room of toilet”, although “ powder room ” (room with powder) can be employed today in an modest way or euphemistic. This change was related to the introduction of the public toilets (as in the trains) which required an indication on the door. The original use became indelicate and was mainly replaced by the Table to equip. Vestiges of the original direction are reflected in terms like the Toilet articles and the Toilet water . The word “toilets” itself can be regarded as impolite in certain areas, and employed elsewhere without embarrassment.

In France, one usually says the toilets (with the Pluriel), whereas in French-speaking Belgium one says rather the toilet (with the Singulier). One says also the “cabinets”, the “Latrine S”, the WC, or “vécés” (delivery “wécés” in French-speaking Belgium). In Quebec, one indistinctly uses the toilet or the toilets , although the expressions bathroom and room of toilet are also used.

In slang, one speaks about john . The expression “toilets” indicates the Bathroom rather. “WC” is the abbreviation of English toilets closet , but this expression is uncommon in the anglophone countries, where one speaks with euphemism about rest room (“room about rest”, especially in the United States; but when one speaks about the apparatus itself it is known as " toilets closet").

While referring to the room or the equipment of plumbing, the word toilet is often replaced by other euphemisms (and Dysphémisme S) like room of bath S , conveniences , the saddle , necessary , room of the Sirs or of the ladies , the smallest part or the little place , the throne or the room of throne , room of toilet , water chamber (of English, W.C. or “toilets closet”) or lavatory .

The origin of “loo” (the British euphemism) is unknown, but one suspects it of coming from “ Gardy loo! ”, a corruption of “ keep the Eau ”, the expression which was used as warning with the passers by when chamberpots and other receptacles of reject were emptied of a Fenêtre on the street, current practice before the cities have networks of sewer S.

Public toilets

The public toilets can be individual or collective.

When the toilets are collective, they present boxings closed by individual partitions, as well as wash-hand basin S in a separated sector, where other people of the same sex are present.

The wash-hand basins can be common to both sexes.

The equipment reserved to the men often has Urinoir S separated, fixed at the Mur designed for a user alone, or a basin or a basin for the collective use. Urinals fixed at the wall are sometimes separated by small partitions to preserve the intimacy, i.e. to mask the sight of the genitals of the user.

In Paris, they were called Vespasienne S , or cups in the homosexual slang, and presented only urinals. They appear in 1834 by the will of the prefect of the Seine, the count Claude-Philibert de Rambuteau. Scoffed by the opposition, which well quickly baptized the shelter “Rambuteau column”, this last launches the expression “column urinal”, in memory of the emperor Vespasien, to whom one had allotted the establishment of public urinals, with Rome. The nicknames multiply. “ “the Rambuteau shelters” were called pistières. Undoubtedly in its childhood he had not heard O, and that had remained to him. He thus pronounced this word incorrectly but perpetually ” (Marcel Proust, Time found , p. 749). Contemporaries of Proust, of homosexual of the 16 {{E}} district used the coded term of bays , more knack that slang the cups , others, more popular, had baptized them Ginette . That of pissotière , in reference to the “hole in the wall of a ship to let run out surface water”, remained.

The end of the exemption from payment of the Parisian public toilets was voted by the Conseil of Paris the January 28th 1980, and the four first paying Sanisette S were built, and a concession contract of these sanisettes (registered trademark in 1980) between the Town hall of Paris and the company JC Decaux was signed in 1991.

paying Toilets

Some public toilets can be used free, but of others require a payment. This one can be carried out in several ways:

deposit on a dish without monitoring,
deposit in a box with a slit,
deposit in the slit of a swivel or a spring carries,
via a Préposé, commonly called Dame-pipi which is often also responsible for the Nettoyage.

The use of the paying public toilets is at the origin of the British euphemism for the micturition, “ to spend has penny ” (to spend a Sou).

In much of stations and stations of bus, paying toilets were installed during the Années 1950 and 1960, but number of them were removed thereafter because of the Vandalisme on the mechanism of the Monnayeur S.

public Toilets separated by sex Separation by sex is so characteristic of the public toilets that Pictogramme S symbolizing a man or a woman are employed to distinguish them. They were sometimes criticized to perpetuate Stéréotype S.

The public toilets separated by sex are a source of difficulty for some, for example, the people accompanied by Enfant S of the opposite sex or the Homme S dealing with Bébé S when only the room of toilet reserved to the women was equipped with a changing table planned for the change of Couche breeches.

It is often difficult to negotiate the public toilets separated by sex for the Transgenre S or the people Androgyne S, who are often prone to the Embarras, with the Harcèlement, even with problems with the police force. People transgenre were stopped for the use not only of the bathrooms who correspond to their kind of identification, but also of those which correspond to the kind that they were assigned with the Naissance.

A certain number of buildings have additional public toilets of neutral kind. One also finds some (but seldom) in the homosexual institutions or transgenres and the Université S; more often these toilets exist for a different reason - they are marked, not to be for Femme S or Homme S, but for the handicapped people, and in right proportion are equipped to allow the people moving in Wheel chair to employ them.

Another raised problem is that of the insufficient number of the toilets for women. Indeed, the architects envisage usually a surface and an equal number of cabins for the two sexes, whereas the men use less the cabins than the women. In addition the women on average spend more time in the toilets than the men, still lengthening the latencies. Certain public places in the United States and in China hold account and allot the cabins of it according to a report/ratio H/F varying from 2/3 to 1/5 according to the place.

The toilets of the private Logement S are practically never separated by sex.

Toilets with public transport

One finds usually toilets in the Avion S and the Aéroport S, in the Train S (except the case of trains with limited course, of the type suburban trains) and the Gare S, often in the interurban Autobus and the vat S, but not in the Métro S, nor in the trams and the urban Autobus.

In the trains, the traditional toilets directly evacuate the dejections on the way, from where the notification which appears in many toilets of train: “PLEASE, do not use the toilets when that the train is with the stop”. In the modern trains, the toilets are equipped with WC chemical which are the subject of draining in the stations of maintenance of the terminals.

On the aircraft, because of pressurization, the waste water is stored during the flight and is evacuated at the time of the landing by trucks intended for this purpose.

public toilets in the History

The toilets appeared very early in the History. In 2500 before J. - C., the inhabitants of Harappa in India had toilets functioning by water in each house, bound by covered drains of brick S of cooked Argile. There were also toilets in Egypt and old China.

Toilets in the world

The forms and provisions of the toilets vary according to the countries and the cultures, in particular because of the practices of defecation: the posture varies (base or squatted), just as the method of anal cleaning (with toilet paper, water, or objects various) and the fécophile attitude or fécophobe (which influences the later use of the excrements).

Germany and Hungary

In Germany, like in Hungary, one uses more readily the flat-bottomed basin , which avoids projections and which makes it possible to examine deposit them in the search of possible anomalies; incidentally, that also makes it possible to practice much more easily of the tests of research of the Cancer of the colon.

Japan

The Japanese Toilettes current are known for their advanced functionalities, which can include a water jet of washing, an electronic order, a ventilation, etc

Shantytowns

In the Shantytown S where the cleansing is often defective, the term of “ flying Toilettes ” once describes the use of plastic bags for the defecation, thrown randomly the fallen night.

Others

the toilets inspired , poem of Alfred de Musset sent to Georges Sand;
Marcel Duchamp presented a Urinoir for its work of art, entitled Fontaine (1917).

See too

Shower, Latrine, Plomberie
Entraînement with cleanliness
Toilette dries
flying Toilettes
Toilettage

External bonds

Explication of Bernard Cerquiglini in images
Bathe-Prohibited Guide counting the public toilets of the whole world
ToiletZone Patchwork of various toilets in the whole world
(Fr) Geopipi Free service of Géolocalisation de Toilettes Public
(Fr) Report on the differences enter French and Quebec toilets.
(in) Benefit of health of the natural squatted position

Simple: Toilet Zh-yue: 廁所

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