To think toilet sounds better than loo?

[Mabelthebore]

& dessert sounds nicer than pudding? I know some people look down on those who say toilet and dessert but I actually think they sound nicer. I think loo in particular is a horrible word.

Agree I hate the word loo (shudders)
In.the US they say... Go potty 😳

It’s class-based and arose out of suspicion of French terms. So toilet, serviette, dessert, seatee and originally mirror vs loo, napkin, pudding, sofa and looking glass. Mirror has won that battle.

It’s nothing to do with the sounds of the words.

My Dad calls it "The Throne Room"

It's a very specific regional British thing that some people are holding onto because "the upper claahss say it'. I suspect it would be gone by now otherwise.

It does sound ridiculously twee and I use it sometimes but much prefer to say toilet/restroom/bathroom if necessary. Much more understood all over the world.

Same for dessert. Like a pp said, pudding is a specific type of dessert all over the world. Dessert also sounds nicer.

I suppose when you've lived all over and mixed a lot, it's easier to not hold onto some things as the be-all and end-all.

Yes we do too, or lavatory if we're being posh. And definitely pudding rather than dessert or sweet.

It's loo or occasionally To Let in this house, and in general the question is "what's for pud?"

My nana used yto say "sweet" I haven't heard it in years! Thanks for the memories 🙂

I say loo & dessert, my son says toilet

Curious, I was taught (by my grandfather who's family had worked in hospitality for a few generations and were very keen on 'properness') that dessert was cold and pudding was hot... I wonder if there's any basis to that..

Same here

It really, really doesn't...... lrt # just leave it at that. (So much more to say.....).

I have an irrational hatred of the word "loo", so much so that I don't even like the look of it on the page (anyone else ever thought that it looks like a lorgnette?). But toilet's almost as bad, so for me it's bog or lav.

Pudding's fine though. The only person I know who ever referred to it as "sweet" was a pretentious aunt who fancied herself as posh, but really wasn't.

Not to mention 'loo' is such an ugly little word for what it means. It really makes you think of poo.

Yep. Cringy.

I agree, hate the word loo

Anyone using the phrase "non-U" in 2024 is just showing how out of touch with the 21st century they are.

Dessert is a bit twee
Pudding is what we have always called it.

Loo is twee too but Lavatory sounds a bit like public lavatories.

How often are you having conversations about going to the loo with people all over the world?

Reminds me of Waterloo!

Absolutely the opposite. Dessert is never acceptable - it's always pudding.
I can tell that some people on thus thread know their Nancy Mitford (or Jilly Cooper!), but clearly not everyone.....

Agree with you on both, OP! For some reason I cannot stand the word "loo" 🤣

A pudding is anything from a yoghurt to ice cream to spotted dick and custard.

Is the risk worth leaving your son without a mother if things go wrong? No matter how small the chance there is always a risk

O for god's sake, I was being tongue in cheek, not serious!!!
But it does explain where it came from and the sentiment of u and non-u still remains even if that descriptor isn't used i.e. use of words can define what type of background etc someone comes from, although as the decades have progressed of course things get blurred.