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 #2 (permalink) Thu May 11, 2006 6:37 am Secret code at the supermarket ('bath tissue'?) |
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Hi Jamie
I don't think I can remember ever seeing a label on those bags , but I always thought of them as "air sickness bags" - and then only if I was "thinking delicately".  Among friends, I just call it a "barf bag". But "motion discomfort bag"? Who the heck are they trying to kid?
Amy |
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Yankee
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| #3 (permalink) Thu May 11, 2006 13:17 pm Secret code at the supermarket ('bath tissue'?) |
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| Yankee wrote: |
| I don't think I can remember ever seeing a label on those bags , but I always thought of them as "air sickness bags" - and then only if I was "thinking delicately". Among friends, I just call it a "barf bag". But "motion discomfort bag"? Who the heck are they trying to kid? |
I think most Americans call them barf bags, so you're in massive company. |
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Jamie (K)
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Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #4 (permalink) Thu May 11, 2006 14:22 pm Secret code at the supermarket ('bath tissue'?) |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: |
| Today I was at an unfamiliar supermarket, and I needed toilet paper. I looked at the signs over the aisles but could not find it listed. Then I realized that the sign was calling toilet paper "bath tissue". That was very disorienting for me, because I certainly don't do my business in the bathtub. |
The name it is given in Spanish is 'hygienic paper', which I find even less appropriate. If you think about it (not too carefully, though!), the whole process is rather unhygienic, actually!
We also have a posh name for the toilet: 'inodoro' (odourless) -- who on earth came up with that? Mercifully, the name is hardly ever used. Imagine having to say: Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go to the odourless -- it sounds just as awful in Spanish! |
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Conchita
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| #5 (permalink) Thu May 11, 2006 14:30 pm Tissues etc |
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Hi,
All this reminds me of a book edited by Nancy Mitford published over a generation ago containing essays by the likes of Evelyn Waugh and friends and called Noblesse Oblige: An Enquiry into the Identifiable Charateristics of the English Aristocracy. In this book the expressions U and non-U were coined denoting 'Upper Class' and 'not of the Upper Class' a lot of tosh really but indicative of the era. Later a certain Professor of Linguistics of Birmingham University by the name of Alan S C Ross, compiled a complete list of words and notes by each one what he regarded as U and non-U. Now at first you tend to dismiss the whole idea as ridiculous and then when no-one is looking, you surreptitiously look up words. If you turn to toilet this is non-U and lavatory is U. My hubby is non-U and husband is U. How-do is non-U and U is how d'you do .
Harmless fun really, I think
Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Word Story: Search Engines |
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Alan
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| #6 (permalink) Thu May 11, 2006 22:37 pm Tissues etc |
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| Alan wrote: |
In this book the expressions U and non-U were coined denoting 'Upper Class' and 'not of the Upper Class' a lot of tosh really but indicative of the era.
If you turn to toilet this is non-U and lavatory is U. My hubby is non-U and husband is U. How-do is non-U and U is how d'you do .
Harmless fun really, I think |
Euphemisms have been around for ages. My German friends ask me endlessly why we don't like saying the word "toilet" and why I always ask where the "bathroom" or "powder room" is when the room I'm looking for has neither a bathing function nor powder. 
Nowadays we also have expressions that are "politically correct" and "business euphemisms". And these expressions sometimes drive me absolutely crazy because they're so obvious (often to the point of being ridiculous). They are obvious attempts to hide something negative or unpleasant.
I mean, in the world of business, first the word "downsizing" came into vogue. It was an indirect way for companies to say that some employees (possibly hundreds or thousands) would be losing their jobs.
Then, apparently some genius decided that "down" in the word "downsizing" was still too negative. And so we got "rightsizing". A nice positive-sounding word. But the number of jobs lost was not necessarily less... And, of course, "rightsizing" a company never involves adding jobs.
Amy |
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Yankee
I'm a Communicator ;-)
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| #7 (permalink) Thu May 11, 2006 23:08 pm Tissues etc |
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| Yankee wrote: |
| My German friends ask me endlessly why we don't like saying the word "toilet" and why I always ask where the "bathroom" or "powder room" is when the room I'm looking for has neither a bathing function nor powder. |
Well, for one thing, the room itself is not the toilet. You are looking for the room where the toilet is, and there aren't many polite words for that that non-native speakers are liable to know.
| Yankee wrote: |
I mean, in the world of business, first the word "downsizing" came into vogue. It was an indirect way for companies to say that some employees (possibly hundreds or thousands) would be losing their jobs.
Then, apparently some genius decided that "down" in the word "downsizing" was still too negative. And so we got "rightsizing". A nice positive-sounding word. But the number of jobs lost was not necessarily less... And, of course, "rightsizing" a company never involves adding jobs. |
"Downsizing" literally is a reduction in the size of the company, usually in terms of more than just the size of the staff, so it's accurate. "Massive firings" wouldn't really explain the scope of such a program. That "rightsizing" really is a stupid one, though. There is also the word dumbsizing, which means to downsize a company in a stupid way that does more harm than good.
I once saw GM jeered for calling part of its downsizing a "career transition program". This was supposed to be proof of the evil deception corporations engage in. However, I was close to the situation, and the term really was accurate. The company gave the employees more than two years' notice, paid for their retraining and gave them job placement services. I even met a lady who got her entire nursing degree paid for by GM. Some guys who didn't take advantage of the program ended up in bad shape, but that was their own fault.
One euphemism I hate is "conscious raising" for ideological indoctrination. |
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Jamie (K)
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| #8 (permalink) Thu May 11, 2006 23:18 pm Tissues etc |
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| Alan wrote: |
| If you turn to toilet this is non-U and lavatory is U. |
Well, to me, 'lavatory' sounds awful. I myself always 'go to the loo' (or to the bathroom, if I have to be a bit more formal). It has a funny sound to it, as are some of the theories about its origin, and I don't care if it sounds unrefined!  |
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Conchita
Language Coach
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| #9 (permalink) Fri May 12, 2006 0:13 am Tissues etc |
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| Conchita wrote: |
| Well, to me, 'lavatory' sounds awful. I myself always 'go to the loo' (or to the bathroom, if I have to be a bit more formal). It has a funny sound to it, as are some of the theories about its origin, and I don't care if it sounds unrefined! |
Do people outside the UK usually understand you when you say "the loo"? |
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Jamie (K)
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Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #10 (permalink) Fri May 12, 2006 11:43 am About 'bath tissue' and 'loo rolls' |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: |
| Do people outside the UK usually understand you when you say "the loo"? |
First of all, outside an everyday or informal context, I don’t usually say where I’m going in these cases (I find it a bit tasteless – I might just as well say ‘I have to go for a pee’!). I also usually try to avoid going to public toilets, but if I really have to and can’t do it surreptitiously, then I use/ask for the ‘bathroom’.
I know ‘the loo’ is not ‘international English’, as you would say, and that Americans don’t use the term. I use it in a familiar context, but again, I prefer not to shout if from the rooftops. Another informal word I heard in England was the ‘john’. The child’s expression ‘to do a wee-wee’ also sounds funny (funny ha-ha, not funny peculiar – thank you, Amy!).
Have a look at the following quotation. Isn’t it rib-tickling?
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We've come a long way, Baby...
How well versed are you in bathroom etiquette? This little history lesson may amuse you.
In the Middle Ages, it was considered sufficient to step "an arrow's flight" distance into the gardens before doing what had to be done. Royalty apparently even thought this unnecessary--one English noble was appalled to find that the visiting king and retinue defecated wherever they chose throughout his castle--and during a conversation with a young noblewoman, he was surprised to hear tinkling water and watch a puddle spreading across his floor beneath her long dress. Makes you wonder how they ever trained the family pooch.
Officially banned in 1393 in Paris, it was a centuries-long practice to empty bedpans from high windows into the street. So much for sidewalk cafes in Paris in those days.
One of history's earliest etiquette books, penned by Erasmus of Rotterdam (1465-1536), laid down several laws about behavior concerning bodily-functions. "It is impolite," he wrote, to greet someone who is urinating or defecating." He then advises the person in need of "breaking wind" to let a cough hide the explosive sound...Follow the law: replace farts with coughs. And I thought all those folks at the Mexican restaurant last night were suffering from the same upper respiratory infection.
You may laugh at this, and hopefully it makes you chuckle, but this too is a part of living consciously. Get on your knees now and thank the Lord God Almighty for sending us sanitary engineers.
posted by Don Iannone |
And how about these Jewish euphemisms for going to the bathroom?:
10. Plant a tree in Israel.
9. bring a Korban
8. Kli Sheni time
7. Put something in shamus
6. Let My People Go
5. Boil the bagels.
4. Take Terumah and Maaser
3. Put baby Moses' basket in the river.
2. Rebuild the temple.
1. Going Shanah Bet.
| Jamie (K) wrote: |
| Well, for one thing, the room itself is not the toilet. You are looking for the room where the toilet is, and there aren't many polite words for that that non-native speakers are liable to know. |
Well now, I always thought the room itself was the toilet and where you sit (or not) “to pass waste matter from the body” (how’s that for a definition?) is the toilet bowl, though it’s often simply called toilet — just another Ukism, I guess. The French word from which it derives also refers (among a variety of definitions), to washing and dressing. |
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Conchita
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