Loo v Toilet

[Theaspidistraiswilting]

We say loo in our house. Every time my kids ask to go to the loo at school the staff won’t let them go until they ask properly to go to the toilet... They are confused! I am probably being unreasonable but aren’t both acceptable?

I like bog. Far preferable to toilet. My dds have been "corrected" in the past by school and mil and told to say pardon and toilet

I say toilet mainly, especially at work, I talk about them quite a lot really. (It is relevant to my job)

I really dislike it when people 'cringe' at others who say toilet. It's basically looking down on people who you think are inferior to you. It's fine if you are brought up to use 'loo' but why the need to feel superior about it?! Such a horrible snobbish way to think.

Thanks for responding, Crumbs.

The reason for asking was that your earlier post:
"Ours were taught to never use the T word. Fuck is a more acceptable word here. The place is called a lavatory. Loo is fine. It was easy enough for the children to understand some school staff in their primary used inappropriate words that were not permitted at home. Luckily secondary staff reinforced that one went to the lavatory but performed ones toilet before leaving home in the morning.
My husband visibly cringes every time he hears the T word."

reminded me of this:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/3632127/Was-it-Toiletgate-that-done-for-Kate.html
and, having read a few of your comments on other threads before now, I thought we might be in the presence of Royalty...

What about bog, shitter, crap house, poo flue, crapper, shite house...

Khazi

Would be interesting to hear from any teachers who are under orders to enforce the "Toilet" only rule. Hmm.

Definitely not royalty.... but my mother in law was a deb back in the late 50s before it became a pageant without patronage. My background is far, far humbler.

Imagine their faces if a kid asked to go to the shitter 😂

Lavatory is frightfully Hyacinth Bucket.

It's loo.

It's 'crapper' and that's indisputable!

Having said that, I was brought up to say 'loo' because, supposedly (or so my mum says), 'toilet' is a word used by the middle class to distinguish themselves from the great unwashed, whereas the upper crust will join forces with the working class and insist on 'loo'.

Unsurprisingly, I'm from a thoroughly upper middle class background. Nobody but MC people gives a fuck about what you call the receptacle for literal shit.

My parents sometimes referred to it (jokingly) as the throne.

We are dead classy in my family.

amiciss

Ok then, perhaps not “unheard of” but certainly not commonly understood.

Asking waiters in Texas where the “loo” or the “ladies” is will generally get you blank looks.

We all converted to restroom very quickly!

The real upper class said loo, sorry, sofa and napkin.

What might one say instead of napkin?

People here in the US don't use loo, although I obviously know what it means. I say ladies' room if I'm in public, bathroom at home.

When I was a nanny, I once said 'toilet' to a potty training child, and the next day she told me 'daddy said toilet is s BAD WORD'. I normally say loo, but I didn't want her getting confused when at nursery/friends' houses etc so was using different words so she understood.

The same family said I was also only ever allowed to use the word 'peepee' for going for a wee. It didn't go down well when I told them I knew peepee as being slang for penis...

In school, we had one teacher in year 2 who would only let us go to the loo if we asked in Welsh

I think people who have faux attacks of the vapours at the word 'toilet' are more Hyacinth Bouquet than the people who actually say 'toilet'.

Dd has to ask to go to the toilet at school. At home, it’s the loo. Occasionally the lavatory. Around here, many people don’t go to the toilet, they “go toilet”. I have corrected dd on that.

Steff13 the alternative to napkin is serviette. I believe that and toilet were Victorian Franglais affectations which became widely associated with the aspiring “lower classes” by Nancy Mitford.

Hyacinth Bucket would say toilet IMO!

I just used to say to DC that at school they said some things we didn’t at home
eg toilet and serviette. Also H pronounced Haitch which was definitely ‘wrong’ in my education but now seems optional.

Hyacinth would definitely say toilet.

Don't think anyone is getting a "fit of the vapours". Nancy Mitford was writing about this in the 50s she's been dead for years think times have changed! I do find how words come to be used quite interesting.

I am dual heritage fathers side lower middle - toilet serviette, mothers quite posh with loo and napkin

Loo makes me cringe as so twee, bog is crass. Toilet.
My childminder (who is a wonderful wonderful woman in every way) taught DS to say “pardon” rather than “what” which also sounds affected to me, but she is so perfectly heroic that I can’t bring myself to undermine her. I just cringe inwardly.

Don't think anyone is getting a "fit of the vapours".

Some people are.

I think being 'class conscious' (as Debretts itself puts it) to the point that you're bothered by loo vs toilet is cringeworthy in itself.

I know loo is more middle class, but toilet is more clearly and universally understood. Asking to go to the loo (for some people) is so domestic and informal that it's barely one step from asking to go for a wee wee

Part of learning to communicate is learning to change register and adapt your vocabulary (sometimes also accent, dialect or entire language) according to who you are communicating with.

You are making a problem out of nothing - plenty of children speak one language at home, the official form of another language to teachers, and dialect to friends. Even monolingual children know with whom they can use slang and with whom they talk "properly" and regulate automatically. We all have to learn where only formal language will do, and where more informal language works better.

Your kids can easily learn to say loo at home and toilet at school.

Loo is low-class in Australia. Or casual/slang.

Bathroom is what you say if you're proper here.

Super
Always considered bathroom to be an Americanism and I’m surprised it’s considered the correct word. Sounds pretentious to me to hear a Brit saying bathroom.

Mummyoflittledragon Restroom is the preferred term in the US, I believe. I'm not sure where we inherited bathroom from!