All this todo over semantics. A bathroom is what people define it to be. Words often have multiple meanings, and those meanings can change and be addeded to over time.

It's sophomoric to get one's knickers in a knot because in one part of the world the word "bathroom" means the room with a toilet in it whether or not there is a bathtub there as well.

I think that people have just been saying that in England, it's not uncommon for a bathroom not to have a loo in it.
Anyway, everyone knows what you are going to do.
It always tickles me when Americans accuse the British of being prudish and uptight. Perhaps you should do like the Japanese and have the sound of flushing so that nobody could hear your performance.
Oh, yes wonderful Fanny Cradock. I seem to remember that she used to cook in full evening dress.

So how does the term 'Toilet Bag', to refer to a wash-bag, fit in? I imagine that there is some connection to the French 'toilette', which has a rather less base translation than that we use. Does one ever use the term 'toilet-bag' in the US or around the world?

I've never heard the term toilet-bag <i>or</i> wash-bag. What does it mean?

Tallulah - I have never, ever heard of the term Toilet Bag in the US. I really don't know what a wash bag is either, other than perhaps something you put your fragile laundry into before you put it into the washing machine?

Personally, as a child, I found the term Toilette Water (cologne with a high alcohol content) kind of funny and repulsive at the same time...

Toilet bag = toiletry or costmetics bag

Any similiar threads for Barcelona or Spain?

Fly, some of us sophomores enjoy semantics and find the cultural differences expressed in language to be a source of enlightenment and entertainment. Sorry if that gets your knickers in a knot (or is it a twist?).

Billy goat, yours is the first reference I have noticed that bathrooms in England are likely not to have toilets in them. I didn't realize that. Now that would make sense to me as a reason for having a different word for the room with the loo. And I don't think people in the U.S. commonly refer to rooms in public places as bathrooms so much as restrooms or ladies' or men's rooms.

I don't know what percentage of bathrooms in the UK don't have loos in, but I don't think it's that high. By and large, the French and Germans tend to think it's unhygienic to have the loo in the bathroom, in a way that Brits don't. I suspect that in the UK it might have been a marker of luxury to have separate rooms, rather than a cultural necessity (it's not so long since an indoor wotsit, let alone a special room for a bath, was a luxury, after all).

Walter, the glorious term &quot;the bog&quot;???
What is that, or do we want to know?

Back to rookie mistakes for a moment:

Ten years ago, first trip to London, made the mistake of asking for a cheap day return to &quot;Sal-is-bur-ry, please&quot;. The train ticket seller glared at me and boomed

&quot;SAWWWLS-BREEEEE&quot;.

Oh, ok then, a cheap day return to THERE.

In my travel talks I usually mention the TKTS booth in &quot;Lester Square&quot;. Now, I almost always remember to explain it's really Leicester Sq but is pronounced &quot;Lester&quot;. But one time I forgot and got a pretty confused e-mail a few weeks later - a couple had gone to London and never could find the Lester Sq Ticket booth . . . . .

Nikki, my knickers aren't in a knot--doesn't bother me at all what people call the room that has a toilet in it or that others find something like word usage amusing. It does bother me when people use such minor points to put groups of people down or allege superiority for their group because they use some other word (however masked).

Human beings will find the most creative ways to express their bigotry and stereotyping of others.

I've always had a sneaking suspicion that names like Leicester (phonetically - Lester), Bicester (Bister), Magdalen College (Maudlin), Worcester (wooster) were invented so that we Brits could snigger at Americans. Then we went to California and asked the way to La Jolla (exactly phonetically like that) beach. Doh!

I grew up in a home in England without a toilet in the bathroom, and many of my relatives do not have a toilet in their bathroom. That is where WC (water closet) comes from. Our toilet was in a closet just outside of our bathroom. My Aunt Pat's home in Windsor has an upstairs and a downstairs WC. Aunt Beryl in Devonshire must have about 6 WC's in her huge home, but only one bathroom.

<i>&quot;I've always had a sneaking suspicion that names like Leicester (phonetically - Lester), Bicester (Bister), Magdalen College (Maudlin), Worcester (wooster) were invented so that we Brits could snigger at Americans.&quot;</i>

After many trips to UK, we're starting to get the hang of it. But then there's Warwick (warick) and Gatwick (gatwick) - go figure!


<i>&quot;Then we went to California and asked the way to La Jolla (exactly phonetically like that) beach. Doh!&quot;</i>

hee heeeee! Our chance to get even - we have all those marvelous Spanish/Mexican and Indian names to confuse visitors.

On the subject of weird pronunciations, how about Athelstaneford in Scotland (where a Scottish king saw the Saltire cross which would become Scotland's flag) - it's pronounced <i>Elshinford</i> by the locals.

I agree some of those Scottish place names can be quite challenging to Americans - before my last trip, when I was researching our planned day trip to Glasgow, I made a point of finding a &quot;how is it pronunced&quot; Scottish website so if I took a taxi I would be able to ask for Sauchiehall or Buchleuch street and actually arrive where I planneed to! As it turned out we walked untit it was time to return to Edinburgh so just had to ask for Queen Street train station, which did not cause any problems.

BTW to the best of my research - I believe it's Saw Key Haul and Buck Loo.

It is a good idea to carry a bottle of water with you; when I bought drinks (a bottle of water and a bottle of pop) on the street in London just outside Tower of London, it cost me 4 pounds. I didn't realize until a few minutes later, that it converted to about 9 or 10 canadian dollars for two drinks!!
Buying food and drink in restaurants every day can be pricey. We went to grocery stores prior to a train trip (food and drink on the train are also very expensive) and bought food to eat on the way or for at least one of the meals for that day. The grocery stores in uk are great for prepared foods, all ready to eat. Very good quality too.
Make sure you carry a map of the city you are visiting, or at least the city centre. We could not have made our way around London without a city centre map and a tube map. One of the main sites that my daughter wanted to visit was Westminster Abby. We almost missed going because we did not realize that they are not open until very late in the day. Check the times ahead of time. We were lucky and arrived about 10 minutes prior to the last entrance time. Glad we didn't miss it. It was magnificant!!

Speaking of water, when buying a bottle of water in a store, check the labels closely for &quot;still&quot; water - not &quot;sparkling&quot; water.

And if you want a glass of water in a restaurant, if you don't specify tap water, you will get bottled water (and be charged accordingly.)

Re toilet:

Excerpt from &quot;Chosen Words&quot; -- one of a series of &quot;Words&quot; books published between 1942 and 1951 by Ivor Brown, former editor of the Observer:

&quot;The toilette was originally a piece of cloth used for wrapping up clothes. It was also the towel... used by the barber round the shoulders of his clients. From this it became the linen covering a dressing table; then the table itself and all its appointments, the munitions of Venus.

&quot;...toilet came to mean not only the implements of beauty but the procedure of making up...

&quot;Finally, America, in its search for exalted titles for the common &quot;convenience&quot;, a search which has given us the admirable &quot;comfort station&quot;, seized...toilet as one of its lavatory-labels.&quot;

And ultimately:

&quot;...when Pope wrote that &quot;the long labours of the toilet cease&quot; he was not referring to ultimate victory over intestinal stasis.&quot;