Why Do They Call It A Loo ?

Davey Jones

Davey Jones

Well-known Member
Location
Florida
From some readers overseas ,I see the word "loo" a lot I know what it means but I tried to find out where they got that word from.
I typed loo in Googles,nothing came up,typed in "what a loo"

Then I found that the reason that the English "loo" is so named because the toilet was commonly located in room 100 of buildings and the two ("loo" and "100") look very much the same. ( Is that true?)

I remember as a kid a song?? "skip to my loo" but it was really spelled "lou" but Americans wrote it down as "loo".

Now about the LooLoo..I looked it up "A looloo is simply a being. Its just there." WHAT????
Maybe our friends from over there across the pond can explain.
 

"There are several theories about the origin of this informal British term for a toilet. The first, and most popular, is that it derived from the cry of 'gardyloo' (from the French regardez l'eau 'watch out for the water'), which was shouted by medieval servants as they emptied chamber pots out of upstairs windows into the street. This is historically problematic, since by the time the term 'loo' is recorded, the expression 'gardyloo' was long obsolete."

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/what-is-the-origin-of-the-word-loo
 
Meanderer said:
"There are several theories about the origin of this informal British term for a toilet. The first, and most popular, is that it derived from the cry of 'gardyloo' (from the French regardez l'eau 'watch out for the water'), which was shouted by medieval servants as they emptied chamber pots out of upstairs windows into the street. This is historically problematic, since by the time the term 'loo' is recorded, the expression 'gardyloo' was long obsolete."

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/what-is-the-origin-of-the-word-loo
Click to expand...

Oh, grief!! ...

emptying.png
 
'gardyloo' sounds a lot better the"loo",doncha think?


Riding a house......GARDYLOO !!!!!!!!!!!!

Say "gardyloo" to your dog and see what happens.(g)

Think Ill name my next cat "Gardyloo

 
Davey Jones said:
'gardyloo' sounds a lot better the"loo",doncha think?


Riding a house......GARDYLOO !!!!!!!!!!!!

Say "gardyloo" to your dog and see what happens.(g)

Think Ill name my next cat "Gardyloo
Click to expand...

Some think it is the shortened version of Waterloo.
 
Well we were always taught in History that the word comes from the french garde à l'eau when translated means "beware of the water." However it was adopted and adapted by the Scottish people (where I was born and raised) to Gardyloo, and used as a warning when they were pouring the full chamber pot out of the window or the door into the street . In most of the cities poor areas in Scotland there were no indoor toilets (loos) and those that were outside were often shared by several families (one toilet)...so chamberpots were used a lot, and as the old housing stock survived right up until the 1940's and some brownstone tenements without indoor toilets even up until the 1960's, then the phrase was in use for a long time!!


I never witnessed any of it thank the lord, because I grew up in a wealthy area, but it certainly was used up until about 60 years ago.. lol
 
Like many chiefly British words, 'loo' came from the French. Back in the days before modern plumbing, French commoners would empty their chamberpots directly onto the streets. A common courtesy was to yell, "Gardez l'eau!" (pronounced "Gar-day low", means "Watch out for the water!") to make sure no one was splashed if they were dumping it from a balcony, rooftop, etc. The English caught on to this term, and eventually corrupted l'eau to loo. What a disgustingly fascinating history:eeew::eek:ops1:
 

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