Restroom: 1. British a room in a public building for people to relax or recover in. 2. North American a toilet in a public building. Why a Toilet is addressed as a Restroom in America? I should narrate an interesting titbit here.I read it a few years back in a National English Magazine.Public toilets in Mumbai would have buckets.One had to fill it up with water and take it to the respective toilet to answer his nature's call The interesting point here is that bucket would have a pin hole,intentionally made it to expedite answering the call as otherwise people standing in queue would become restless.So the client would monitor the level of water in the bucket. "Vidya Balan's Ad for saying No to Open Defecation" gathers mommentum across the length and breadth of the country. Here is a link on "A Brief History of Toilets" in Time Magazine. http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1940525,00.html

Asked by Last Modified  

9 Answers

Follow 0
Answer

Please enter your answer

Tarun Chawla

Tutor

Originally meaning a public toilet, this seems to be of American origin, with the earliest usages found around 1900. It’s an extremely common usage, and also one of the vaguest. Rest of course has a number of meanings, but this is probably in the sense of "repose" or "refreshing oneself." A slight variation...
read more
Originally meaning a public toilet, this seems to be of American origin, with the earliest usages found around 1900. It’s an extremely common usage, and also one of the vaguest. Rest of course has a number of meanings, but this is probably in the sense of "repose" or "refreshing oneself." A slight variation is retiring room, a lovely upper-class Briticism from the 1930s. read less
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Tutor

Toilet is a nasty sounding word and people used to be a bit more cautious in saying that word. You do technically rest there because you are sitting down. At one time public restrooms not only had toilets and sinks but a separate room with couches, chairs, tables for women to rest from shopping. The...
read more
Toilet is a nasty sounding word and people used to be a bit more cautious in saying that word. You do technically rest there because you are sitting down. At one time public restrooms not only had toilets and sinks but a separate room with couches, chairs, tables for women to rest from shopping. The larger retail stores had this amenity but I don't think the men's room did. The Romans considered the 'bath' a place to relax so it may have branched from there too. read less
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Founder, Philanthropist, Speaker & Counselor at iSahayog NGO with 18 years of diversified experience into Training & Development, Technical Support, Customer Service, Talent Acquisition, Headhunting, Business Development, Sales, Operations, Social-Work, NGO.

Nicely researched.
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Meditation, Academic Classes and Spoken English Trainer

Toilet is used in different form names such as Toilette, Restroom, Washroom , Lavatory , Heads , Men's Room , Women's Room , The Facility, Water Closet (WC),etc..
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Relieving relaxes one. And you relax when you rest. If you've been to the "TOI..T" before you rest on your bed, you will sleep well. If not, your night could be a nightmare. So the place is actually from where resting originates. So rightly called the restroom.
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Expert training in spoken hindi english ,ielts , gre/gmat training and counseling.

Language is an evolution words evolve from words of different origin for example in Ben johnson's dictionary the word"whitewash" indicated ladies makeover similarly the word "imp" meant progeny. So the above mentioned usage of words is justifiable
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Certified IELTS, Spoken English Coach & Educational consultant

It is always down to culture and origin, Toilet in india is where you pee and mud, while washroom is the place you take a shower
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Language specialist

In american english toilet means a bathroom fixture consisting of a bowl , usually with a detachable , hinged seat and lid, and a device for flushing with water, used for defecation and urination, in British English it is simply means lavatory, but it has also some synonyms some of which are :ablutions,...
read more
In american english toilet means a bathroom fixture consisting of a bowl , usually with a detachable , hinged seat and lid, and a device for flushing with water, used for defecation and urination, in British English it is simply means lavatory, but it has also some synonyms some of which are :ablutions, dressing , make-up,getting ready,wash - up , attire , grooming , toilette, tidy -up , origin of word toilet it is originated from french middle word "toilette", in 1530 it is used as "cover or bag for clothes ", now it is obsolete it is seldom used in this sense read less
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Training

American english is different. You can say it is a cultural difference or whatever since language is a live evolving thing, and gets modified by the mix of people who start using it. Eg., LIFT is called ELEVATOR, TAXI is called CAB, TOILET canned RESTROOM, etc etc - even spellings are created a bit...
read more
American english is different. You can say it is a cultural difference or whatever since language is a live evolving thing, and gets modified by the mix of people who start using it. Eg., LIFT is called ELEVATOR, TAXI is called CAB, TOILET canned RESTROOM, etc etc - even spellings are created a bit differently - eg., color for colour of British english................This is due to history and cultural influences of language read less
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

View 7 more Answers

Related Questions

Why we do not use "to" with home? Such as : Correct : I am going home. Incorrect: I am going to home. Write other words where "to" is not required ? Like : downtown, uptown, etc
For adverbs of location we do not use 'to' whereas school ,bed and other words we use ' to ' are nouns, but you know 'home' is not an adverb of location its just a noun but guess what? home is just an...
Tarun Chawla Online
Why is spoken English more important than written?
Spoken English and Written English both are important.But in Spoken English is more important as there is direct speech of expressions of thoughts and ideas.Speaking allows Audience to grasp emotions...
Abirami
0 0
7
How can I learn English from nothing to everything?
You have to join English coaching Class
Gowre
0 0
7
What is the most complex part of English grammar?
Simple, compound and complex ie: transformation sentence
Rakesh
0 0
8
What is the complete syllabus for English grammar?
The basic syllabus of English Grammar consists of parts of speech – nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
Kirti
0 0
8

Now ask question in any of the 1000+ Categories, and get Answers from Tutors and Trainers on UrbanPro.com

Ask a Question

Related Lessons

How to Say That We Do Daily or in a Pattern?
The Hindi Sentences- 1- Vah roz 9 o'clock par school jaTa hai. 2- Vah bhut late lunch karTi hai. 3- Main har Sunday mithai khaTa hu. 4- Ve students Saturday ki sham ko cricket khelTe hai. Now, ye...
A

Anand Gupta

0 0
0
VOCABULARY for ielts preparation
Word of the Day Adulation ædʒəleɪʃən Hindi: ऐजलेस्हन / ऐजलैशनnoun मनुहार, चापलूसी(f), खुशामद(f), चाटुकारी, चाटूक्ति, ठकुर-सुहाती, अतिप्रशंसा, चिकनी चुपड़ी बातें . servile flattery; exaggerated...

Dr. Rashpal Bharadhwaj Poonawala

0 0
0
Importance of Phonetics
When you open any English dictionary, you will find some kind of signs after the word, just before the meaning of the word, those signs are called Phonetics. Phonetics will help you, how to...

Kurapati M.

0 0
1
Tips for Today: Are you going to

S. Saravanan

0 0
0
Spoken English : An Introduction
Hello Everyone, As we all know that English is just not a language; now it has become an essential skill to interact with our colleagues, friends, partner etc. Whenever you go for a job interview, you'll...

Kratika S.

0 0
0

Recommended Articles

Job Prospects for German Language Learners

Due to globalization of the Indian economy, the demand for learning foreign languages is on the rise. ITES (Information Technology Enabled Service) and Outsourcing have brought a lot of job opportunities paving the way for the learning foreign languages. German is the native language of more than 100 million people in...

Read full article >

Learning foreign language in India

If you think English is enough to communicate with anybody in this world, you are sadly misinformed. Statistically the highest spoken foreign language in the world is Chinese with 20.7%, followed by English at 6.2%. That means that 93.8% of people do not speak English. This makes it necessary to learn another foreign language...

Read full article >

Choosing the right Foreign Language to learn...

When globalization was out of picture, it was enough to know just the mother tongue. Since globalization and out-sourcing have become part of life, there is a nagging need to learn new languages. Foreign languages help us to communicate with potential clients, sell our ideas and bond with their culture. It could be opening...

Read full article >

Which language is more useful to learn French...

Learning any second language could be a little bit tricky. However, to learn a language, one needs to write, read, understand and speak it appropriately. Therefore, many students and professionals find it helpful in learning a foreign language from a reputable and reliable source. A second language helps them to increase...

Read full article >

Find Spoken English classes near you
Spoken English classes in Delhi
Spoken English classes in Bangalore
Spoken English classes in Hyderabad
Spoken English classes in Chennai
Spoken English classes in Mumbai
Spoken English classes in Kolkata
Spoken English classes in Pune
Spoken English classes in Noida
Spoken English classes in Gurgaon
Spoken English classes in Lucknow
Online Spoken English Classes

Looking for Spoken English classes?

Learn from the Best Tutors on UrbanPro

Are you a Tutor or Training Institute?

Join UrbanPro Today to find students near you