Is this a middle class saying?

Going to the bog is, of course, every bit as much avoiding saying what you are really doing as most of the other places people say they are going to when they want to urinate or defecate. At least the modern dictionary definition of toilet is the receptacle into which someone urinates or defecates, so if the argument is that it is unacceptable because it is derived from French and somehow therefore affected, the person thinking that has somehow got themselves stuck in the 1950s.

Loo is what we actually say.

Yeah that's what we say nowadays. But with bog-roll.

It never ceases to amaze me how many MNers even think about this for a second. Honestly, in 2023, who cares what you call it?! The class obsession on here is insane.

That said, I've always hated the word bog just because the East Coast beaches have (or at least used to have) bogs and then it just makes me think the beaches are full of shit.

So how d'you feel about "water closet"? And any thoughts on "cludgie"?

I went to public school and we all called it the bog

You say privy?! Are you from the 1880s???

Lower class I'd say not middle class.

It most definitely is not.

It’s loo. Lavatory is becoming archaic but still used a bit.

Those pesky boarding school kids, banged up for years on end, going to the bog, swearing shamelessly etc.

How very dare they 😂

I'd love to hear someone in The Savoy or Claridges ask where the bogs are. I'd imagine the hotel staff would be holy shit that posh bird just asked where the bogs are.
I'm now hearing Kate and William chatting in my head saying just pour me another g&t darling I'm just nipping to the bog, be back in a mo.

*It never ceases to amaze me how many MNers even think about this for a second. Honestly, in 2023, who cares what you call it?! The class obsession on here is insane.

That said, I've always hated the word bog just because the East Coast beaches have (or at least used to have) bogs and then it just makes me think the beaches are full of shit.*

Don't give a boggin shit what anyone else calls it tbh.

And despite piling in on , being ceaselessly amazed, you've got thoughts on the word bog that probably did take more than a few seconds to think up. You know like everyone else on here.

I'm working class. My mother tried to make me say 'bathroom' and 'pardon' etc as a child because she thought these words were posh. I thought she was being pretentious, but I'd have been told off for bog!

These days I'll go for 'loo' (and 'sorry?') as default, but can adapt. Restroom when in America and so forth. I've never heard anyone in real life call it a WC, but then I don't know any gentry. ;)

I have a very posh friend and they would NEVER say toilet. So much so, that I once asked to use their toilet (because I am not posh and am clearly non-U) and her young DS said "we don't have a toilet, there's only a toilet at nursery", because he'd obviously heard the word used at nursery and not at home.

They would say lav, or loo.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English#:~:text=U%20and%20non%2DU%20English%20usage%2C%20where%20%22U%22,in%20Britain%20in%20the%201950s.

How weird that toilet would be considered low class. It’s what it is and a perfectly acceptable, non-rude word. You would think it was the equivalent of shit-house the way people read to it.

The bog or the bogs is what we called it at school in the 1970s. Very odd to hear it said to a child these days.

I've not said bog since I was about 15. I've only known kids to say it. Most working class say toilet. I've heard loo and lavatory from middle and upper class.

I thought the angst around the word toilet had reduced somewhat. I cannot remember a time when I have used a public loo & it has been labelled as anything other than a toilet. Growing up I remember seeing WC or lavatory but for years now I only see toilets. Do people really say to their dc “this area will often be called a toilet & outside of the home eg school you may have to refer to it as such but at home never utter the word”. 🙄

Im working class and I grew up hearing bog all the time.

I believe that the UK middle class word is loo.

My friend would definitely tell her kids off if they said toilet at home, but she obviously can't stop other people referring to it as that (though she has tried with me)

If you look at the link I posted, there are a number of other words seen as non-U, and she also would never use. She doesn't say perfume, always scent. No serviettes in her house, only napkins (though I'm with her in that one!).
The weirdest is she never says close, only shut (as in a door, or a shop).

Mind you, this is the woman who eats a banana with a knife and fork.

The thing is, the things us normal people have been brought up to think are "more polite" are seen by the gentry as an affectation. And using the more basic word is, bizarrely, posher and more acceptable.

Like PP I think Bog is the name of some cuddly toy and not referring to a toilet at all. Also a more upper middle person would say “Does one need a dump”

I learned English when I moved here as a child*, but from living here and learning the language I’ve found that in terms of language, the upper and working classes generally have more in common than the middle classes with either.

*incidentally this means there’s little point in me attempting to conform to any standards of the British class system, on account of being the dreaded nouveau riche.

🎶I’m tacky and I know it🎶

@sunglassesonthetable

If you are trying to put quotes into 'bold', you need to put the * before and after each paragraph.

Mind you, this is the woman who eats a banana with a knife and fork.

I think that kind of tells you all you need to know.

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea

Thank you. I'm always bold failing.

I can't be arsed to find the two posts that were in response to me, but no, I'm not from 1935 or from 1880 (unfortunately). I just think 'lavatory' and 'privy' sound better than 'bog'.

After I posted that last night, I got a flashback to a time when my DH had just said out of the blue 'You want crapper?' while motioning towards our downstairs toilet which is a toilet and a sink equipped with a SaniFlo, and I just cracked up.