Date:  Tue, 26 Mar 1996 08:54:07 -0800

From:  Allen Maberry <maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]U.WASHINGTON.EDU>

Subject: Re: Lavatory = ?



I'm with Tom. In my family it was always called a WASHBOWL or the BATHROOM

SINK. I think "lavatory" was only used in school, and, as Lynne mentioned

was the only acceptable term.



In a related note, having installed a newer more efficient model, I was

giving away the old toilet at a garage sale. At one point someone asked

me, "How much for that bathroom?" It didn't register with me immediately

and he repeated "I'll take that bathroom over there." I have no idea where

he was from originally, but that was a usage I hadn't heard before here in

the Northwest.



Allen

maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]u.washington.edu



On Tue, 26 Mar 1996, Tom Creswell wrote:



> -- [ From: Tom Creswell * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --

>

> I am surprised to learn that none of those responding to this thread use the

> terms I have usd all my life. Born in 1920 and raised on south side Chicago

> , for me, the hands and face washing utility in what we always called the

> BATHROOMis a WASHBOWL.

>

> The dishwashing utility in the kitchen usually was referred to simply as

> the SINK, the context usually making clear that it was the facility in the

> kitchen--"Put the dishes in the sink, when you're finished." But we also

> had the idiom "Threw everything in but the kitchen sink."Downstairs in the

> basement was a LAUNDRY TUB.

>

> The euphemisms we learned as children for excretory acts were "NUMBER 1" and

> "NUMBER 2." I leave it to those of you who learned other terms to guess

> which act each refers to. In the Catholic boys school I attended, we asked

> permission to "Leave the room," If permission was granted we went to the

> "boys bathroom .":

>

> Tom Creswell

>