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{{Short description|Piece of hardware for the collection or disposal of human excreta}}
{{Citations missing|date=October 2007}}
{{About|the fixture generally|the common flush toilet|flush toilet|a room containing a toilet|Toilet (room)|public rooms containing toilets|Public toilet|other uses}}
{{Otheruses}}
{{Distinguish|Toilette}}
].]]
{{pp-move}}
], preserved at a ] in the Arizona Desert.]]
{{pp-semi-indef}}
A '''toilet''' is a ] and disposal system primarily intended for the disposal of the ]: ] and ].
{{Multiple image
The word "toilet" can be used to refer to the fixture itself or to the room containing the fixture, especially in ].
| align = right
| direction = horizontal
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| image1 = Toilet photo.jpg
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| alt1 = A Western flush toilet with a paper seat cover dispenser, waste basket, and toilet brush near the German-Austrian border
| image2 = Squat-toilet-with-tank.jpg
| width2 =
| image3 = Raised pit toilet, Informal settlements Kampala (8409884995).jpg
| width3 =
| footer_background = white
| footer_align = center
| footer = Toilets come in various forms around the world, including ]s used by sitting or ], and dry toilets like ]s.
| total_width = 400
| alt2 = Squat
| alt3 = Raised pit toilet, Informal settlements Kampala
}}
<!-- ] -->


A '''toilet'''{{refn|group=n|For a full list of English synonyms, see "]" in Wiktionary's ].}} is a piece of ] hardware that collects ] (] and ]), and sometimes ], usually for disposal. ] use water, while ] do not. They can be designed for a sitting position popular in Europe and North America with a ], with ], or for a squatting posture more popular in ], known as a ]. In urban areas, flush toilets are usually connected to a ]; in isolated areas, to a ]. The waste is known as '']'' and the combined effluent, including other sources, is ]. Dry toilets are ], ], ], or other storage and treatment device, including ] with a ].
The ancient cities of ]<ref></ref> and ]<ref></ref> which are located in present day ] & ] had flush toilets attached to a sophisticated ],<ref></ref> and a form of flush toilet was used in the ].<ref></ref> Although a precursor to the modern ] system was designed in 1596 by ],<ref></ref> the toilet did not enter into widespread use until the late nineteenth century, when it was adopted in English upper class residences.<ref>http://www.amazon.com/Poop-Culture-America-Grossest-National/dp/193259521X Poop Culture: How America is Shaped by its Grossest National Product by Dave Praeger ISBN 1-932-59521-X</ref>


The technology used for modern toilets varies. Toilets are commonly made of ] (]), concrete, plastic, or wood. Newer toilet technologies include ], ], ], self-cleaning, ]s and ]s. Japan is known for ]. ]s are specially designed to operate in the air. The need to maintain ] post-] is universally recognized and ] (often held by a ]), which may also be used to wipe the ] after urination, is widely used (as well as ]s).
Nearly 40 percent of the world's population lacks access to toilets<ref></ref>


In private homes, depending on the region and style, the toilet may exist in the same bathroom as the sink, ], and shower. Another option is to have one room for body ] (also called "bathroom") and a separate one for the toilet and ] ] (]). ]s (]) consist of one or more toilets (and commonly single ]s or ''trough'' urinals) which are available for use by the general public. Products like ] and ] help maintain the smell and cleanliness of toilets. ]s are sometimes used. ]s (frequently ]) may be brought in for large and temporary gatherings.
==Types of toilets==
] as seen in some parts of Europe and Asia.]]


Historically, ] has been a concern from the earliest stages of ]s. However, many poor households in ] use very basic, and often unhygienic, toilets – and nearly one billion people have no access to a toilet at all; they must ] and urinate.<ref name="JMP2017">WHO and UNICEF (2017) . Geneva: World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2017</ref> These issues can lead to the spread of diseases transmitted via the ], or the transmission of ] such as ] and ]. Therefore, the United Nations ] wants to "achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and ] for all and end open defecation".<ref name="SDG6" />
There are also many different ways to clean oneself after using the toilet. A lot depends on national ] and local resources. The most common choice in the ] is ], sometimes used in conjunction with the ]. (See ] and ] for a discussion of the many alternatives used through history and in different cultures.) In the ] and some countries in ], and ]n countries such as ] and ], the custom is to use ], either with or without toilet paper.{{Fact|date=May 2007}} Traditionally, the left hand is used for this, for which reason that hand is considered impolite or polluted in many eastern countries.{{Fact|date=May 2007}}
{{TOC limit|3}}


==Overview==
The most common type of toilet in modern cities is the ], in which water takes away the waste through ] to a ]. In rural areas where sewers are not practical, ] may be installed instead.
The number of different types of toilets used worldwide is large,<ref name="tilley">{{cite book|url=http://www.eawag.ch/en/department/sandec/publications/compendium/|title=Compendium of Sanitation Systems and Technologies|last2=Ulrich|first2=Lukas|last3=Lüthi|first3=Christoph|last4=Reymond |first4=Philippe|last5=Zurbrügg |first5=Chris|publisher=Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag)|isbn=978-3-906484-57-0|edition= 2nd |location=Duebendorf, Switzerland|last1=Tilley|first1=Elizabeth|year=2014}}</ref><ref name="Shaw">{{cite book|url=http://www.susana.org/en/resources/library/details/1993|title=A Collection of Contemporary Toilet Designs|date=2014|publisher=EOOS and WEDC, Loughborough University, UK|isbn=978-1-84380-155-9|pages=40|last1=Shaw|first1=R.}}</ref> but can be grouped by:
* Having water (which seals in odor) or not (which usually relates to e.g. ] versus ])
* Being used in a sitting or squatting position (sitting toilet versus ])
* Being located in the private household or in public (] versus ])
Toilets can be designed to be used either in a standing (urinatiing), sitting or in a squatting posture (defecating). Each type has its benefits. The "'''sitting toilet'''", however, is essential for those who are movement impaired. Sitting toilets are often referred to as "western-style toilets".<ref name="Olga">Gershenson, Olga; Penner, Barbara (2009): Temple University Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.</ref> Sitting toilets are more convenient than squat toilets for ] and the elderly.


People use different toilet types based on the country that they are in. In ], access to toilets is also related to people's ]. Poor people in low-income countries often have no toilets at all and resort to ] instead. This is part of the ] crisis which international initiatives (such as ]) draw attention to.<ref name="UN WTD">{{Cite web|url=http://www.un.org/en/events/toiletday/|title=World Toilet Day 19 November|website=United Nations|access-date=14 November 2017}}</ref>
The most common design in first-world countries is the sitting toilet. Some other countries use the ].


==With water==
{|
! Main designs !! Specialty designs]
|-
| style="width:50%" valign="top"|
* ]
* ]
* ]
** Wall-hung urinal
** Floor-length urinal
** Gutter type urinal
** ]
| style="width:50%" |
* Toilet with built-in ]
* ]
* Dry toilet (i.e. no water used for flushing)
** ]: very common in ] grounds in the United States. Also known as an ] in the U.S.
** ]: Very commonly found in ] grounds in Europe, and large climbing ]s. Also found in some modern ecologically designed buildings. ]
** Urine-diverting & dry composting: a source-separation toilet that keeps urine and feces separate and simplifies the composting process. Can also be called an ] (from ]) toilet, and is a viable alternative to flush sanitation in urban areas .
** ]
** ], a system for converting human faeces to ]
* ]: a toilet on a boat, which has a ] to bring cleaning seawater in and pump waste overboard or into a holding tank.
|}


===Flush toilet===
{{Main|Flush toilet}}
]
]
A typical ] is a ceramic bowl (pan) connected on the "up" side to a ] (tank) that enables rapid filling with water, and on the "down" side to a drain pipe that removes the effluent. When a toilet is flushed, the sewage should flow into a ] or into a system connected to a ]. However, in many ], this treatment step does not take place.


The water in the toilet bowl is connected to a pipe shaped like an upside-down U. One side of the U channel is arranged as a siphon tube longer than the water in the bowl is high. The siphon tube connects to the drain. The bottom of the drain pipe limits the height of the water in the bowl before it flows down the drain. The water in the bowl acts as a barrier to ] entering the building. Sewer gas escapes through a vent pipe attached to the sewer line.
===Public toilets===
{{main|Public toilet}}
] in the Netherlands.]]
]
Public toilets, public lavatories, or public conveniences are toilets that are accessible to the general public with common access from the street. Conveniences being the collective term for male and female designated toilets, convenience (]) usually acquiring a gender attribute.


The amount of water used by conventional flush toilets usually makes up a significant portion of personal daily water usage.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Much Water Does Your Toilet Use? |url=https://www.savingwater.org/indoors/toilets/how-much-water-does-your-toilet-use/ |access-date=2024-10-24 |website=Saving Water Partnership |language=en-US}}</ref> However, modern ] designs allow the use of much less water per flush. ]s allow the user to select between a flush for urine or feces, saving a significant amount of water over conventional units. One type of dual flush system allows the flush handle to be pushed up for one kind of flush and down for the other,<ref>{{cite web|title=Tucson lawmaker wants tax credits for water-conserving toilet|url=http://cronkitenews.jmc.asu.edu/?p=315|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20070810105602/http://cronkitenews.jmc.asu.edu/?p=315|archive-date=2007-08-10|access-date=2008-03-12|publisher=Cronkite News Service}}</ref> whereas another design is to have two buttons, one for urination and the other for defecation. In some places, users are encouraged not to flush after urination. Flushing toilets can be plumbed to use ] (water that was previously used for washing dishes, laundry, and bathing) rather than ] (drinking water). Some modern toilets pressurize the water in the tank, which initiates flushing action with less water usage.
A public toilet may or may not cost money to use; for those that do, see "]". Between the categories of outright free and outright pay toilets, there is a grey area of toilets where a fee is expected, but not enforced. A charge levied in the UK during the mid-20th century was one ] penny, hence the generally adopted term "spend a penny" meaning to use the toilet.{{Fact|date=May 2007}}
Public facilities often have several toilets partitioned by ''stalls'' (US) or ''cubicles'' (UK). Facilities for men often also have separate urinals, either wall-mounted fixtures designed for a single user, or a constantly-draining basin or trough for collective use. Wall-mounted urinals are sometimes separated by small partitions or other obstructions for ], i.e., to keep the user's ] hidden from public view.{{Fact|date=May 2007}}


Another variant is the pour-flush toilet.<ref name="tilley" /> This type of flush toilet has no cistern but is flushed manually with a few liters of a small bucket. The flushing can use as little as {{convert|2|–|3|L}}.<ref name="tilley" /> This type of toilet is common in many Asian countries. The toilet can be connected to one or two pits, in which case it is called a "pour flush pit latrine" or a "twin pit pour flush to pit latrine". It can also be connected to a septic tank.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Some Squat Toilets in Asia Can Be Scary -- Here's How to Survive Them! |url=https://www.tripsavvy.com/squat-toilets-in-asia-1458304 |access-date=2024-10-24 |website=TripSavvy |language=en}}</ref>
] outdoor toilet]]
Outdoor public toilets (in the street, around parks, etc.) are a form of ]. For mixed sex arrangements, there are cubicles varying from simple devices with little or no ] to more luxurious versions that automatically clean themselves after every use (for the latter, see ]). Facilities without walls all around are typically for ] only, and for men only; although passers-by can see the urinating men from the back, they cannot see the genitals.{{Fact|date=May 2007}} These street urinals are known as ''Pissoirs'' after the French term (see ]).


Flush toilets on ships are typically flushed with ].
Some facilities are mobile, and can thus be put in place where and when needed, e.g., for a weekend at an entertainment venue. Additionally, some can be sunk into the ground (and thereby made inoperable), for the periods that they are not needed. The idea behind this is that some people do not like the sight of a public toilet in the street, and they are more easily hidden than repeatedly moved. This type is typically installed in entertainment areas and made operational during weekend evenings and nights.


==== Twin pit designs ====
] by apparently making it harder to locate the veins.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}]]
]
]s use two pits used alternatively, when one pit gets full over a few months or years.<ref name=Till2014>{{cite book|author=Tilley, E. | author2=Ulrich, L. | author3=Lüthi, C. | author4=Reymond, Ph. | author5=Zurbrügg, C. | title=Compendium of Sanitation Systems and Technologies|date=2014|publisher=Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag)|location=Dübendorf, Switzerland|isbn=978-3-906484-57-0|edition=2|url=http://www.sandec.ch/compendium}}</ref> The pits are of an adequate size to accommodate a volume of waste generated over one or two years. This allows the contents of the full pit enough time to transform into a partially sanitized, ]-like material that can be manually excavated.<ref name=AK2020>{{cite web |title=Single Ventilated Improved Pit – Akvopedia |url=https://akvopedia.org/Single_Ventilated_Improved_Pit |website=akvopedia.org |access-date=21 May 2020}}{{CC-notice|cc=by3}}</ref> There is a risk of ] pollution when pits are located in areas with a high or variable water table, and/or fissures or cracks in the bedrock.<ref name=AK2020/><!-- covers whole paragraph -->


===Vacuum toilet===
A ] is an outdoor public toilet with walls which can either be connected to the local ] or store the waste and be emptied from time to time. Space shuttles empty waste out into outer space. Many toilets can be cleaned on the spot, or at a central location in the case of a mobile toilet or urinal. In Europe, public toilets are also set up for cities as a compensation for advertising permits. They are part of a ] contract between the out-of-home advertising company and the city council. The reason for this combination is the shortage in city budgets.
]
A ] toilet is a flush toilet that is connected to a ], and removes waste by suction. They may use very little water (less than a quarter of a liter per flush)<ref name=ofworld/> or none,<ref name=wisegeek>{{cite web |title=What are Vacuum Toilets?|url=https://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-vacuum-toilets.htm |website=wiseGEEK|date=22 July 2023 }}</ref> (as in ]s). Some flush with coloured disinfectant solution rather than with water.<ref name="ofworld">{{cite web|title=Aircraft Toilets/Toilets of the World|url=https://toilet-guru.com/aircraft.php|website=Toilets of the World|language=en}}</ref> They may be used to separate ] and ], and process them separately<ref>{{cite web |title=Vacuum Toilet {{!}} SSWM – Find tools for sustainable sanitation and water management! |url=https://sswm.info/water-nutrient-cycle/water-use/hardwares/toilet-systems/vacuum-toilet |website=sswm.info |language=en}}</ref> (for instance, the fairly dry blackwater can be used for ] production, or in a ]).


], ], bus toilets, and ships with plumbing often use vacuum toilets. The lower water usage saves weight, and avoids water slopping out of the toilet bowl in motion.<ref>{{cite web |title=How does the toilet in a commercial airliner work? |url=https://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/question314.htm |website=HowStuffWorks |language=en |date=1 April 2000}}</ref> Aboard vehicles, a portable collection chamber is used; if it is filled by positive pressure from an intermediate vacuum chamber, it need not be kept under vacuum.<ref>{{cite web |title=EVAC Bus Vacuum Toilet |url=https://www.evac-train.com/products/vacuum-toilet-systems/evac-bus-toilet/ |website=Evac GmbH}}</ref>
Terms used to identify a public toilet will vary from region to region. ''The Gents'' and ''The Ladies'' are commonly used ] terms meaning the male and female toilet respectively. Some ]an public toilets may be marked ]; while in the ] the label "CR" (comfort room) is common.


===Floating toilet===
Some public toilets have begun to be provided with flushable paper toilet seat covers which allow the user the comfort of knowing that they are not in contact with a surface previously used by a stranger. There is however no medical evidence that these prevent the spread of disease.<ref> Ask Lucy archive on paper toilet seat covers. June 28, 2006 </ref>
A floating toilet is essentially a toilet on a platform built above or floating on the water. Instead of excreta going into the ground they are collected in a tank or barrel. To reduce the amount of excreta that needs to hauled to shore, many use ]. The floating toilet was developed for residents without quick access to land or connection to a sewer systems.<ref>. Asian Development Bank.</ref> It is also used in areas subjected to prolonged flooding.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Govt-Bt900bn-needed-30168866.html |title=Article, Govt: Bt900bn needed (in Thailand), The Nation October 31, 2011 |access-date=September 6, 2012 |archive-date=September 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120906183531/http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Govt-Bt900bn-needed-30168866.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The need for this type of toilet is high in areas like ].<ref>Cain, Geoffrey. (April 19, 2010). . ''Global Post''.</ref>


==Without water==
====Toilets for people with disabilities====
{{excerpt|Dry toilet|paragraphs=1|file=no}}
Some toilet areas (otherwise known as "stalls"), are specially adapted for people with ]. These are wide enough to allow the entry and use by a person in a ], and often feature hand-holds or ] bolted to the wall, enabling the person to maneuver onto the toilet, if necessary. Some countries have legal requirements for the accessibility of toilets. {{See|Accessible toilets}}


===Pit latrine===
{{excerpt|pit latrine|paragraphs=1|file=no}}


====Gender and public toilets==== ===Vault toilet===
{{anchor|Vault toilet}}
] is characteristic of public toilets to the extent that ]s of a man or a woman are used to indicate where their respective toilets are. These pictograms are sometimes enclosed within standard geometric forms to reinforce this information, with a circle representing a women's toilet and a triangle representing a men's facility. Pictograms depicting men and women in traditional dress (men in pants, women in skirts) have been criticized for perpetuating gender stereotypes. Standard ]s are rarely used.
A vault toilet is a non-flush toilet with a sealed container (or vault) buried in the ground to receive the excreta, all of which is contained underground until it is removed by pumping. A vault toilet is distinguished from a pit latrine because the waste accumulates in the vault instead of seeping into the underlying soil.
In restaurants, bars and night clubs, the identifications can be ] to match the decoration of the premises, using male and female figures or parts of the body, text, or even puns, making it difficult for some patrons to identify them<ref name="Restaurant News">'''', ], Sept 13, 1999 by ], ].</ref>.


===Urine-diverting toilet===
Sex-separated public toilets are a source of difficulty for some people. For example, people with children of the opposite sex must choose between bringing the child into a toilet not designated for the child's gender, or entering a toilet not designated for one's own. Men caring for babies often find that only the women's washroom has been fitted with a change table. People with disabilities who need assistance to use the restroom have an additional problem if their helper is the opposite ].
{{excerpt|Urine-diverting dry toilet|paragraphs=1|file=no}}


===Portable toilet===
Sex-separated public toilets are often difficult to negotiate for ]ed or ] people, who are often subject to embarrassment, harassment, or even assault or arrest by others offended by the presence of a person they interpret as being of the other gender (whether due to their outward presentation or their genital status). Transgendered people have been arrested for using not only bathrooms that correspond to their gender of identification, but also ones that correspond to the sex they were born with.
{{excerpt|Portable toilet|paragraphs=1|file=no}}


===Chemical toilet===
{| align="right"
{{excerpt|Chemical toilet|paragraphs=1,2|file=no}}
| ]
| ]
|-
| colspan="2" align="center" | See also: ]
|}


===Toilet fed to animals===
Many existing public toilets ]. Additionally, some public places (such as facilities targeted to the transgendered or ] communities, and a few universities and offices) provide individual washrooms that are not gender-specified, specifically in order to respond to the concerns of gender-variant people; but this remains very rare and often controversial. Various courts have ruled on whether transgendered people have the right to use the washroom of their gender of identification.
The ], which consists of a toilet linked to a ] by a chute, is still in use to a limited extent.<ref>{{Cite book |date=2012-11-14 |title=Environmental History of Water: Global Views on Community Water Supply and ... – Petri S. Juuti – Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x7Ov-mVPjZ0C |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114063115/https://books.google.com/books?id=x7Ov-mVPjZ0C |archive-date=2012-11-14 |access-date=2022-11-06 |page=40|isbn=9781843391104 |last1=Juuti |first1=Petri |last2=Katko |first2=Tapio |last3=Vuorinen |first3=H. |publisher=IWA }}</ref> It was common in rural China, and was known in Japan, Korea, and India. The ] depends on the same principle, of livestock (often ]) eating human excreta directly.


==="Flying toilet"===
A significant number of facilities have additional gender-neutral public toilets for a different reason &mdash; they are marked not for being for females or males, but as being accessible to persons with disabilities, and are adequately equipped to allow a person using a wheelchair and/or with mobility concerns to use them.
{{excerpt|Flying toilet|paragraphs=1|file=no}}


==Squat toilets==
] includes segregated toilets among the measures to ensure the safety of girls in schools<ref name="AI">'''', ], Document ACT 77/008/2007, November 2007.</ref>
{{excerpt|Squat toilet|paragraphs=1|file=no}}


{{gallery
====Family restrooms====
|File:Dolmabahce Toilette2.jpg|At ], Turkey
|File:Lower NTK Estate old squat toilet.jpg|Old-style squat toilet (Hong Kong)
|File:French Squatter Toilet.jpg|In France
|File:Squattoilet.jpg|Porcelain squat toilet with water tank for flushing (], China)
||Japanese-style squat toilet with automatic sensor
|align=center}}


==Usage==
Another recent development in public toilets is the "family restroom". Family restrooms are ] that contain multiple stalls designed for maximum privacy and a communal washing area for use by both genders. The family restroom is designed so that a parent with a young child of the opposite gender can bring the child into the restroom with them without the concerns associated with single-gender restrooms. Family restrooms have started appearing in newly-built sports ], amusement ], ], and major ].


===Urination===
====Toilets in public transport====
{{main|Urination}}
There are usually toilets in ]s, ] trains, and often in long-distance buses and ], but not in ]s, ]es, ]s, and other buses. Many newer trains have a waste reservoir, but, in older trains and still in some newer ones, the contents simply fall on the tracks, hence the notice which appears in many train toilets: "Please do not flush while the train is standing at a station".
]
There are cultural differences in socially accepted and preferred voiding positions for urination around the world: in the Middle East and Asia, the squatting position is more prevalent, while in the Western world the standing and sitting position are more common.<ref>{{cite web|author=Y. de Jong|title=Influence of voiding posture on urodynamic parameters in men: a literature review (in Dutch)|url=http://www.mednet.nl/wosmedia/1718/mictiehouding_tvu.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714200739/http://www.mednet.nl/wosmedia/1718/mictiehouding_tvu.pdf|archive-date=July 14, 2014|access-date=2014-07-02|publisher=Nederlands Tijdschrift voor urologie}}</ref>


===Anal cleansing habits===
Lavatories on aircraft consist of a sink, a waste bin, and a toilet. On many newer aircraft the toilet does not flush with water; rather, suction removes the waste into a collection bin below cabin level. This type is generically known as a vacuum lavatory. Older aircraft use a lavatory tank below the toilet (normally hidden by a hinged "flapper valve" at the bottom of the toilet bowl) and a pump to filter and recirculate lavatory fluid to facilitate flushing.
{{main|Anal cleansing}}
] of the traditional type, available in many southern European and ] countries.<ref name="Roberto Zapperi 2010">Roberto Zapperi: ''Zu viel Moralismus macht den Körper schmutzig.'', in: FAZ, 24 aprile 2010.</ref>]]
In the Western world, the most common method of cleaning the anal area after ] is by ] or sometimes by using a ]. In many ], the facilities are designed to enable people to follow ] ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|Qaḍāʼ al-Ḥājah}}''.<ref name="MSA">{{Citation |url=http://www.msawest.com/islam/fundamentals/pillars/prayer/prescribed/pp1_2.html |publisher=MSA West Compendium of Muslim Texts |last=Shu'aib |first=Tajuddin B. |work=The Prescribed Prayer Made Simple |title=Qadaahul Haajah (Relieving Oneself) |access-date=2009-03-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20090819060534/http://www.msawest.com/islam/fundamentals/pillars/prayer/prescribed/pp1_2.html |archive-date=2009-08-19 }}</ref> For example, a ] may be plumbed in. The left hand is used for cleansing, for which reason that hand is considered impolite or polluted in many Asian countries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/eight-surprisingly-rude-gestures-to-avoid-when-travelling/story-e6frfqfr-1226764916221|title=Eight surprisingly rude gestures to avoid when travelling|date=November 21, 2013|website=News.com.au|access-date=17 July 2016|archive-date=26 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151026165540/http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/eight-surprisingly-rude-gestures-to-avoid-when-travelling/story-e6frfqfr-1226764916221|url-status=dead}}</ref>


The ] in many ] is due in part to the ] which encourages washing after all instances of defecation.<ref>{{cite book|title=Contemporary Biology: Concepts and Implications|first=Mary|last= E. Clark|year= 2006| isbn= 9780721625973|publisher=University of Michigan Press}}</ref> The ] is common in predominantly ] where water is considered essential for ],<ref>{{cite book|title=Contemporary Biology: Concepts and Implications|first=Mary|last= E. Clark|year= 2006| isbn= 9780721625973| page =613 |publisher=University of Michigan Press|quote= Douching is commonly practiced in Catholic countries. The bidet ... is still commonly found in France and other Catholic countries.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |date= 2013|title= Made in Naples. Come Napoli ha civilizzato l'Europa (e come continua a farlo)|trans-title=Made in Naples. How Naples civilised Europe (And still does it)|language=it |publisher= Addictions-Magenes Editoriale|isbn=978-8866490395}}</ref> and in some traditionally ] and ] countries such as Greece and Finland respectively, where ]s are common.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.biginfinland.com/hose-always-next-every-finnish-toilet/|title=A hose: the strange device next to every Finnish toilet|first=Santiago|last=H|date=July 8, 2014}}</ref>
:''See also:'' ]


There are toilets on the market with seats having integrated spray mechanisms for anal and genital water sprays (see for example ]). This can be useful for the elderly or people with disabilities.
===Private toilets===


=== Accessible toilets ===
Toilets in private homes are almost never separated by sex. However, the size of a home or facility bears on the availability of options. Small facilities are limited by their space to the toilet options they can offer; it is more common to find a higher number of choices in a large facility. The same is true for homes; in more affluent households in the USA, where the homes are usually larger, bathrooms are also often more spacious than average, and more numerous. In such homes, bathrooms (especially master bathrooms) are increasingly being designed with a small adjoining room exclusively for the toilet, as well as separate washing basins. This makes it easier for couples who share a bathroom to maintain their desired level of privacy and personal space. In Australia, it has long been the case that the toilet is in a separate room from the bathroom.
{{Main|Accessible toilet}}
An ] is designed to accommodate people with ], such as age related limited mobility or inability to walk due to impairments. Additional measures to add toilet accessibility are providing more space and ]s to ease transfer to and from the ], including enough room for a ] if necessary.


==="High-tech" toilets=== ===Public toilets===
{{excerpt|Public toilet|paragraphs=1|file=no}}
Advanced technology is being integrated into toilets with more functions, especially in Japan - see ]. The biggest maker of these toilets is ]. Such toilets can cost anywhere from US$200 to $5,000. The features are operated by control pads (sometimes with bilingual labels), and even hand-held remote control devices. Some of these features are
*Automatic-flushing mechanisms, operated by a ] or other sensor. Typically these flush a toilet when the user stands up, ]]] or flush a urinal when the user steps away.
*Water jets, or "bottom washers" like a ], as an alternative to toilet paper
*The "Portable ]", Toto's portable hand-held bottom washer
*Blow dryers, to dry the body after use of water jets
*Artificial flush sounds, to mask noises such as body functions
*Urine and stool analysis, for medical monitoring. Matsushita's "Smart Toilet" checks blood pressure, temperature, and blood sugar.
*Digital clock, to monitor time spent in the bathroom
*Automatic lid operation, to open and close the lid
*Heated seats (Some of these toilets have been known to catch on fire){{Fact|date=September 2007}}
*Deodorizing fans
*Automated paper toilet-seat-cover replacers, which automatically replace a paper toilet-seat cover with the push of a button.
*Electric Toilet Brushes
*New to the United States, but used in Europe and Israel for over a decade are dual flush toilets. Two buttons allow for the user to select between a flush for urine or feces. Because the density of urine is nearly equal to that of the water around it, it requires far less water to flush into a home's sewage system. Because most of a households' flushes are for urine, dual flush toilets save a large amount of water.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cronkitenews.jmc.asu.edu/?p=315|title=TUCSON LAWMAKER WANTS TAX CREDITS FOR WATER-CONSERVING TOILETS|publisher=Cronkite News Service|accessDate=March 12, 2008}}</ref>


==="Lo-tech" toilets=== === Communication through toilets ===
In ], inmates may utilize toilets and the associated plumbing to communicate messages and pass products.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sifakis |first1=Carl |title=The Encyclopedia of American Prisons |date=30 June 2014 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-2987-7 |page=172 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ObIQUpJxHZYC |access-date=27 May 2024 |language=en |chapter=Muling}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Jackson |first1=Joe |last2=Burke (Jr.) |first2=William F. |title=Dead Run: The Untold Story of Dennis Stockton and America's Only Mass Escape from Death Row |date=1999 |publisher=Times Books |isbn=978-0-8129-3206-5 |page=124 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZVcrAAAAYAAJ |language=en}}</ref> The acoustic properties of communicating through the toilet bowl, known as toilet talk, potty talk,<ref name="Lombardo2018">{{cite book |last1=Lombardo |first1=A. G. |title=Graffiti Palace |date=13 March 2018 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0-374-16591-8 |pages=179–181 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jU1LDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA180 |access-date=27 May 2024 |language=en}}</ref> toilet telephone<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jabusch |first1=David M. |last2=Littlejohn |first2=Stephen W. |title=Elements of Speech Communication |date=1995 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-939693-37-5 |page=74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Us0eyUlKoKAC|access-date=27 May 2024 |language=en}}</ref> is influenced by flush patterns and bowl water volumes.<ref name="Lombardo2018"/> Prisoners may also send binary signals by ringing the sewage or water pipes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kaminski |first1=Marek M. |title=Games Prisoners Play: The Tragicomic Worlds of Polish Prison |date=5 June 2018 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-18714-3 |page=105 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i_9ZDwAAQBAJ |access-date=27 May 2024 |language=en}}</ref> Toilet talk enables communication for those in solitary confinement.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Elliott |first1=Elizabeth M. |title=Security, With Care: Restorative Justice and Healthy Societies |date=21 May 2020 |publisher=Fernwood Publishing |isbn=978-1-77363-320-6 |page=127 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fQB0EAAAQBAJ&dq=%22toilet+talk%22+%22prison%22&pg=PA127 |access-date=27 May 2024 |language=en |chapter=hapter 7. Geometry of Individuals and Relations}}</ref> Toilets have been subject to wiretaps.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Banks |first1=Gabrielle |title=Inmates' toilet talk can be trouble |url=https://www.heraldnet.com/news/inmates-toilet-talk-can-be-trouble/ |access-date=27 May 2024 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=6 July 2007}}</ref>
According to '''The Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000''' by the ], 40% of the global population does not have access to ''excreta disposal facilities'', mostly in Asia and Africa. There are efforts to design toilets that are easy to build and maintain with simple materials, that are also hygienic. The ] has created some . See ].


==Public health aspects==
===Toilets on fire-resistance rated floors===
{{Further|WASH#Health aspects}}
]ping versus mechanical ] firestopping.]]
]]]
Toilets in multi-storey ]s, located on ] floors typically require at least two ], which can compromise the rating of the floor if left untreated. One opening is for the fresh water supply to flush and/or fill the water tank. The other through-penetration is for the drain pipe. The fresh water supply line requires routine firestopping. The drain pipe, however, is exempt from firestopping in many ]s, particularly when noncombustible ] is used, because the penetration terminates on the unexposed side in a ceramic bowl filled with water, which can withstand significant fires. ] firestops are often used, in the event ] pipes are used for toilet drains, so that the melting plastic pipe is choked off in the event of an accidental fire. It is, however, customary to fill the metallic drain pipe ] with ] ]. Even with the best of intentions, it would be difficult for the firestopper to install a ], because he is not allowed or inclined to remove the flange, which is what is partially used to support the drain pipe below during the installation process.


To this day, 1&nbsp;billion people in developing countries have no toilets in their homes and are resorting to ] instead.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://worldtoilet.org/|title=World Toilet|last=manic|website=World Toilet|language=en-US|access-date=2016-03-07}}</ref> Therefore, it is one of the targets of ] to provide toilets (sanitation services) to everyone by 2030.<ref name="SDG6">{{cite web|title=Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation|url=http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-6-clean-water-and-sanitation.html|access-date=28 September 2015|website=UNDP}}</ref><ref name=":17">{{Cite web |title=Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (A/RES/71/313) |url=https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FRES%2F71%2F313&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=undocs.org}}</ref>
== Grey water ==
{{seealso|Greywater}}
In some areas with water shortage issues, in order to conserve levels of ], some installations use grey water for toilets. Grey water is waste water produced from processes such as washing dishes, laundry and bathing.


Toilets are one important element of a ] system, although other elements are also needed: transport, treatment, disposal, or ].<ref name="tilley" /> Diseases, including ], which still affects some 3 million people each year, can be largely prevented when effective ] and water treatment prevents fecal matter from contaminating ], ], and ] supplies.
{{Cleanup-remainder|May 2007|date=September 2007}}


==History== ==History==
{{Further|History of water supply and sanitation}}
]]]
]'s ''Marriage a la Mode'' series, 1743. A young countess receives her lover, tradesmen, hangers-on, and an Italian tenor as she finishes her toilette<ref> See Egerton op cit</ref>]]


===Ancient history===
According to Teresi et al. (2002):<ref>Teresi et al. 2002</ref>
] of the ] in around 2350 BC.]]
] public toilets, ].]]
] archeological site, Sri Lanka.]]
], China, Eastern Han dynasty 25–220 AD]]


The fourth millennium BC would witness the invention of clay pipes, sewers, and toilets, in ], with the city of ] today exhibiting the earliest known internal pit toilet, from {{Circa|3200 BC}}.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Piers D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HU6rCwAAQBAJ&q=Tell+Asmar,+Northern+Palace,+sewer&pg=PA30|title=Sanitation, Latrines and Intestinal Parasites in Past Populations|date=2016-03-03|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-05953-0|pages=30|language=en}}</ref> The Neolithic village of ] contains examples, {{Circa|3000 BC}}, of internal small rooms over a communal drain, rather than pit.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Ailes|first=Emma|date=2013-04-19|title=Scotland and the indoor toilet|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-22214728|access-date=2020-05-18}}</ref> The ] in northwestern India and Pakistan was home to the world's first known urban sanitation systems. In ] ({{Circa|2800 BC}}), toilets were built into the outer walls of homes.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} These toilets had vertical chutes, via which waste was disposed of into cesspits or street drains.<ref>Teresi et al. 2002</ref> In the Indus city of ] ({{Circa|2350 BC}}), houses belonging to the upper class had private toilets connected to a covered sewer network<ref>{{cite book|title=Evolution of Sanitation and Wastewater Technologies Through the Centuries|page=32|year=2014|editor=Andreas N. Angelakis|isbn=9781780404844|publisher=] Publishing}}</ref> constructed of brickwork held together with a gypsum-based mortar that emptied either into the surrounding water bodies or alternatively into ], the latter of which were regularly emptied and cleaned.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Khan|first1=Saifullah|title=1 Chapter 2 Sanitation and wastewater technologies in Harappa/Indus valley civilization (ca. 2600–1900 BC) |url=https://www.academia.edu/5937322 |publisher=Academia.edu |access-date=9 April 2015}}</ref>
<blockquote>The third millennium B.C. was the "Age of Cleanliness." Toilets and sewers were invented in several parts of the world, and ] circa 2800 B.C. had some of the most advanced, with lavatories built into the outer walls of houses. These were "Western-style" toilets made from bricks with wooden seats on top. They had vertical chutes, through which waste fell into street drains or cesspits. ], the director general of archaeology in India from 1944 to 1948, wrote, "The high quality of the sanitary arrangements could well be envied in many parts of the world today."</blockquote><blockquote> Nearly all of the hundreds of houses excavated had their own bathing rooms. Generally located on the ground floor, the bath was made of brick, sometimes with a surrounding curb to sit on. The water drained away through a hole in the floor, down chutes or pottery pipes in the walls, into the municipal drainage system. Even the fastidious ] rarely had special bathrooms.</blockquote>


Toilets appeared as early as 2500 BC. The people of the ] in ] and north-western ] had water-flushing toilets in each house that were linked with drains covered with burnt clay bricks. Around the 18th century BC, toilets started to appear in ]; ] in the time of the ] and ancient ]. In ] civilization, toilets were sometimes part of public ]s. Other very early toilets that used flowing water to remove the waste are found at ] in Orkney, Scotland, which was occupied from about 3100 BC until 2500 BC. Some of the houses there have a drain running directly beneath them, and some of these had a cubicle over the drain. Around the 18th century BC, toilets started to appear in ], Pharaonic ], and ].


In 2012, archaeologists found what is believed to be Southeast Asia's earliest latrine during the excavation of a neolithic village in the ], southern Vietnam. The toilet, dating back 1500 BC, yielded important clues about early Southeast Asian society. More than 30 ]s, containing fish and shattered animal bones, provided information on the diet of humans and dogs, and on the types of parasites each had to contend with.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-06-14 |title=Old toilet find offers civilsation start clues |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/7105724/Old-toilet-find-offers-civilsation-start-clues |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=Stuff |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-04-28 |title=Time capsule – Life & Style – Vietnam News {{!}} Politics, Business, Economy, Society, Life, Sports – VietNam News |url=https://vietnamnews.vn/life-style/226384/time-capsule.html |access-date=2022-11-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428193142/https://vietnamnews.vn/life-style/226384/time-capsule.html |archive-date=2021-04-28 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-06-17 |title=Asia's First Toilet Discovered In Southern Vietnam |url=https://www.asianscientist.com/2012/06/in-the-lab/asia-first-toilet-discovered-in-southern-vietnam-rach-nui-2012/ |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=Asian Scientist Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>
Roman toilets, like the ones pictured here, are commonly thought to be used in the sitting position. But sitting toilets only came into general use in the mid-19th century.<ref>A History of Technology, Vol.IV: The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850. (C. Singer, E Holmyard, A Hall, T. Williams eds) Oxford Clarendon Press, pps. 507-508, 1958</ref> A case has been made for the squatting hypothesis.<ref></ref>


In ], the techniques of the construction of toilets and lavatories developed over several stages. A highly developed stage in this process is discernible in the constructions at the ] complex in ] where toilets and baths dating back to 2nd century BC to 3rd century CE are known, later forms of toilets from 5th century CE to 13th century CE in ] and ] had elaborate decorative motifs carved around the toilets.<ref name="auto">{{cite journal |last1=W.I. |first1=Siriweera |title=Sanitation and healthcare in ancient Sri Lanka |journal=The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities |date=14 December 2004 |url=http://dlib.pdn.ac.lk/bitstream/123456789/2764/1/W.I.%20Siriweera%20-%20Vol.%20XXIX%20%26%20XXX%20Nos.%201%20%26%202.pdf |access-date=14 December 2004}}</ref><ref>A History of Medicine in Sri Lanka From the Earliest Times to 1948, Page 151, By C. G. Uragoda (1987), University of Michigan</ref><ref>Abhayagiri Vihara at Anuradhapura – Page 46, Tī. Jī Kulatuṅga (1999), Central Cultural Fund, Ministry of Cultural and Religious Affairs, University of Virginia</ref> Several types of toilets were developed; these include lavatories with ring-well pits, underground terracotta pipes that lead to septic pits, urinary pits with large bottomless clay pots of decreasing size placed one above the other. These pots under urinals contained "sand, lime and charcoal" through which urine filtered down to the earth in a somewhat purified form.<ref name="auto"/>
==Etymology==
The word "toilet" came to be used in ] along with other ]. It originally referred to the ''toile'', French for "cloth", draped over a lady or gentleman's shoulders whilst their hair was being dressed, and then (in both French and English) by extension to the various elements, and also the whole complex of operations of ] and body care that centered at a dressing table, also covered by a cloth, on which stood a ] and various brushes and containers for powder and make-up: this ensemble was also a '']'', as also was the period spent at the table, during which close friends or tradesmen were often received.<ref>National Gallery Catalogues (new series): ''The British School'', Judy Egerton, p. 167, 1998, ISBN 1857091701, describing the famous Hogarth painting ''The Toilette'' from the '']'' series.</ref> The English poet ] in '']'' (1717) described the intricacies of a lady's preparation:
{{cquote|And now, unveil'd, the toilet stands display'd
Each silver vase in mystic order laid.}} These various senses are first recorded by the ] in rapid sequence in the later 17th century: the set of "articles required or used in dressing" 1662, the "action or process of dressing" 1681, the cloth on the table 1682, the cloth round the shoulders 1684, the table itself 1695, and the "reception of visitors by a lady during the concluding stages of her toilet" 1703 (also known as a "toilet-call"), but in the sense of a special room the earliest use is 1819, and this does not seem to include a lavatory.<ref>All ] (1st edn) for "toilet". The sequence of recorded first use may not exactly match the sequence in which they actually came into use </ref>


In ] civilization, ] using flowing water were sometimes part of public ]. Roman latrines, like the ones pictured here, are commonly thought to have been used in the sitting position. The Roman toilets were probably elevated to raise them above open sewers which were periodically "flushed" with flowing water, rather than elevated for sitting. Romans and ] also used ]s, which they brought to meals and drinking sessions.<ref>Mattelaer, Johan J. "Some Historical Aspects of Urinals and Urine Receptacles." World Journal of Urology 17.3 (1999): 145–50. Print.</ref> Johan J. Mattelaer said, "] has described how there were large receptacles in the streets of cities such as ] and ] into which chamber pots of urine were emptied. The urine was then collected by fullers." (] was a vital step in ].)
Through the 18th century, everywhere in the ]-speaking world, these various uses centred around a lady's draped dressing-table remained dominant. In the 19th century, apparently first in the United States,<ref>The original ] regards the use for a room including washing, bathing and/or lavatory facilities as "in U.S. esp."(ecially), and does not produce a quotation for the restricted sense as a lavatory, referring to "Funk's Standard Dictionary". ] Ist Edn "Toilet"</ref> the word was adapted as a genteel euphemism for the room and the object as we know them now, perhaps following the ] usage ''cabinet de toilette'', much as ''powder-room'' may be coyly used today, and this has been linked to the introduction of public toilets, for example on railway ]s, which required a plaque on the door. The original usages have become obsolete, and the table has become a ''dressing-table''.


The ] in China two thousand years ago used ]s.
Vestiges of the original meaning continue to be reflected in terms such as ''toiletries'', '']'' and ''toilet bag'' (to carry flannels, soaps, etc). This seemingly contradictory terminology has served as the basis for various ] e.g. '']'' magazine ("If it doesn't say 'eau de toilette' on the label, it most likely doesn't come from the famed region of Eau de Toilette in ] and might not even come from toilets at all.")
] department store are branded as 'Toilets'.]]
The word ''toilet'' itself may be considered an ] word in the United States, whilst elsewhere the word is used without any embarrassment. The choice of the word used instead of ''toilet'' is highly variable, not just by regional ] but also, at least in ], by ] connotations. ] wrote an essay out of the choice of wording; see ]. Some manufacturers show this uneasiness with the word and its class attributes: ], the largest manufacturer, sells them as "toilets", yet the higher priced products of the ], often installed in more expensive housing, are sold as ''commodes'' or ''closets'', words which also carry other meanings. Confusingly, products imported from ] such as ] are referred to as "toilets", even though they carry the cachet of higher cost and quality. When referring to the room or the actual piece of equipment, the word ''toilet'' is often substituted with other ]s and ]s (See '']'').
As old euphemisms have become accepted, they have been progressively replaced by newer ones, an example of the ] at work. The choice of word used to describe the room or the piece of plumbing relies as much on regional variation (]) as on social situation and level of formality (]).
===Lavatory===
The term ''lavatory'', abbreviated in slang to ''lav'', derives from the ] ''lavātōrium'', which in turn comes from Latin ''lavāre'', to wash. It used to refer to a vessel for washing, such as a ]/], and thus came to mean a room with washing vessels. Since these rooms often also contain toilets, the meaning evolved into its current one, namely the polite and formal euphemism for a toilet and the room containing it. '''Lavatory''' is the common ] for toilets on commercial ] around the world, see ].


===Loo=== ===Post-classical history===
]s were toilets used in the ], most commonly found in upper-class dwellings. Essentially, they were flat pieces of wood or stone spanning from one wall to the other, with one or more holes to sit on. These were above chutes or pipes that discharged outside the castle or ].<ref name="Genc, Melda 2009">Genc, Melda. "The Evolution of Toilets and Its Current State." Thesis. Middle East Technical University, 2009. Harold B. Lee Library. Brigham Young University, 2009. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.</ref> Garderobes would be placed in areas away from bedrooms because of the smell<ref>"Middle Ages Hygiene." Middle Ages. The Middle Ages Website. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.</ref> and also near kitchens or fireplaces to keep their enclosures warm.<ref name="Genc, Melda 2009" />
], Birmingham, England, United Kingdom]]
The origin of the (chiefly British) term ''loo'' is unknown. According to the OED, the etymology is obscure, but it might derive from the word Waterloo. The first recorded entry is in fact from ]'s ''] (1922)'': "O yes, mon loup. How much cost? Waterloo. Watercloset".


{{gallery |File:Garderobe2.jpg|Garderobe seat openings
Other theories are:
|File:Garderobe1.jpg|View looking down into garderobe seat opening
<!-- |File:Aborterker Schloss Hülsede.jpg|Garderobe at ] -->
<!-- |File: Posterstein 2.jpg|Garderobe at ] castle -->
|File:Burg Campen Aborterker.jpg|Exterior view of garderobe at ] castle
|File:Toilet in Rosenborg Castle Copenhagen.jpg|Toilet in Rosenborg Castle Copenhagen
|align=center
<!-- |File:Örebro slott privet.JPG|Garderobe at ] castle, Sweden -->}}


The other main way of handling toilet needs was the ], a receptacle, usually of ceramic or metal, into which one would excrete waste. This method was used for hundreds of years; shapes, sizes, and decorative variations changed throughout the centuries.<ref>Powell, Christine A. "Port Royal Chamberpots Introduction." Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University, 1 Dec. 1996. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.</ref> Chamber pots were in common use in Europe from ancient times, even being taken to the Middle East by medieval pilgrims.<ref>{{cite book|title=A History of the Crusades, Volume IV: The Art and Architecture of the Crusader States|year=1977|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-06824-0|pages=47|author1=Setton, Kenneth M.|author2=Harry W. Hazard|name-list-style=amp}}</ref>
* That it derives from the term "gardyloo" (a corruption of the ] phrase ''gardez l'eau'' (or maybe: Garde de l'eau!) loosely translated as "watch out for the water!") which was used in ] ] when ]s were emptied from a window onto the street. However the first recorded usage of "loo" comes long after this term became obsolete.


===Modern history===
* That the word comes from ] terminology, loo being an old-fashioned word for ]. The standard nautical pronunciation (in ]) of ''leeward'' is ''looward''. Early ships were not fitted with toilets but the crew would urinate over the side of the vessel. However it was important to use the ] side. Using the ] side would result in the urine blown back on board: hence the phrases 'pissing into the wind' and 'spitting into the wind'. Even now most yachtsmen refer to ''the loo'' rather than ''the ].
]
]
]


By the Early Modern era, chamber pots were frequently made of china or copper and could include elaborate decoration. They were emptied into the gutter of the street nearest to the home.
* That the word derives from the 17th century preacher ]. Bordaloue's sermons at the in ] lasted at least three hours and myth has it that wealthier ladies took along "travelling" ]s that could be hidden under their dresses whenever the need arose to avoid the need to leave. Due to the popularity of the myth the bowls became known as Bordaloues after the preacher and the name became corrupted to portaloos and sometimes just plain loos due to the habit of shortening words in slang.


In pre-modern Denmark, people generally ] or other places where the ] could be collected as ].<ref name="Ars">{{cite web |url=https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/06/unexpected-viking-toilet-discovery-leads-to-controversy/ |website=] |title=Unexpected Viking toilet discovery leads to controversy |first=Annalee |last=Newitz |date=June 22, 2017}}</ref> The ] language had several terms for referring to ], including ''garðhús'' (yard house), ''náð-/náða-hús'' (house of rest), and ''annat hús'' (the other house). In general, toilets were functionally non-existent in rural Denmark until the 18th century.<ref name="Ars"/>
===WC===
The ''WC'' refers to the initial letters of ], used commonly in France (pronounced "le vay-say" or "le vater"). The term is also used in the Netherlands (pronounced "waysay"), Germany (pronounced "vey-tsay") and Poland (pronounced "vu-tse"). In Mexico, ''WC'' is very common to indicate a public toilet, although the majority of the people there do not know the meaning of the 'mysterious' letters on the door. The same can be said for Hungary and Finland. {{Fact|date=April 2007}} Quite why the English expression should have become international is not clear.


By the 16th century, ]s and cesspools were increasingly dug into the ground near houses in Europe as a means of collecting waste, as urban populations grew and street gutters became blocked with the larger volume of human waste. Rain was no longer sufficient to wash away waste from the gutters. A pipe connected the latrine to the cesspool, and sometimes a small amount of water washed waste through. Cesspools were cleaned out by tradesmen, known in English as ]s, who pumped out liquid waste, then shovelled out the solid waste and collected it during the night. This solid waste, euphemistically known as ], was sold as fertilizer for agricultural production (similarly to the closing-the-loop approach of ]).
===Khazi===
] ] derives ''khazi'', also spelt karzy, kharsie or carzey, from a low ] word ''carsey'' originating in the late 19th century and meaning a privvy. Carsey also referred to a den or ]. It is presumably derived from the ] ''casa'' ] house, with the spelling influenced by similar sound to khaki. Khazi is now most commonly used in the city of Liverpool in the UK, away from its cockney slang roots.<ref>"Why Do We Say?" (1987) by ]</ref> ], NSW]]


In the early 19th century, public officials and public hygiene experts studied and debated sanitation for several decades. The construction of an underground network of pipes to carry away solid and liquid waste was only begun in the mid 19th-century, gradually replacing the cesspool system, although cesspools were still in use in some parts of Paris into the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book|last=La Berge|first=Ann Elizabeth Fowler|title=Mission and Method: The Early Nineteenth-Century French Public Health Movement|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52701-9|pages=207–9}}</ref> Even London, at that time the world's largest city, did not require indoor toilets in its building codes until after the ].
===Dunny===
''The Dunny'' is an ] expression for an outside toilet. See ].The person who appeared weekly to empty the pan beneath the seat was known as the dunnyman. The word derives from the British dialect word dunnekin, meaning dung-house.<ref></ref>
It is now an informal word used for any lavatory and is most often used referring to drop or pit lavatories in the ].


{{anchor|integral water closet}} The ], with its origins in ] times, started to assume its currently known form, with an overhead cistern, s-bends, soil pipes and valves around 1770. This was the work of ] and ]. Water closets only started to be moved from outside to inside of the home around 1850.<ref name=Burnett>{{cite book|last1=Burnett |first1=John |others= Illustrated by Christopher Powell|title=A Social History of Housing, 1815–1985|date=1986|publisher=Methuen|location=London|isbn=0416367704|page=214|edition= 2nd.}}</ref> The integral water closet started to be built into middle-class homes in the 1860s and 1870s, firstly on the principal bedroom floor and in larger houses in the maids' accommodation, and by 1900 a further one in the hallway. A toilet would also be placed outside the back door of the kitchen for use by gardeners and other outside staff such as those working with the horses. The speed of introduction was varied, so that in 1906 the predominantly working-class town of ] had 750 water closets for a population of 10,000.<ref name=Burnett/>
===Privy===
{{Unreferencedsection|date=October 2007}}
''The Privy'' is an old fashioned term used more in the ] and in ]; "privy" is an old alternative for "private", as in ]. It is used interchangeably in North America for various terms for the ].


The working-class home had transitioned from the rural cottage, to the urban ]s with external rows of privies, to the through terraced houses of the 1880 with their sculleries and individual external WC. It was the ] of 1918 that recommended that semi-skilled workers should be housed in suburban cottages with kitchens and internal WC. As recommended floor standards waxed and waned in the building standards and codes, the bathroom with a water closet and later the low-level suite became more prominent in the home.<ref name="Burnettretrospect">{{cite book|last1=Burnett |first1=John |others= Illustrated by Christopher Powell|title=A Social History of Housing, 1815–1985|date=1986|publisher=Methuen|location=London|isbn=0416367704|pages=336, 337|edition= 2nd.}}</ref>
===Derivations of "house"===
Standalone toilets has been variously known as backhouse, house of ease, house of office, little house, or ].<ref>Ward Bucher (1996) "Dictionary of Building Preservation", ISBN 0471144134</ref>


Before the introduction of indoor toilets, it was common to use the ] under one's bed at night and then to dispose of its contents in the morning. During the ], British housemaids collected all of the household's chamber pots and carried them to a room known as the housemaids' cupboard. This room contained a "slop sink", made of wood with a lead lining to prevent chipping china chamber pots, for washing the "bedroom ware" or "chamber utensils". Once running water and flush toilets were plumbed into British houses, servants were sometimes given their own lavatory downstairs, separate from the family lavatory.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Victorian House|publisher=HarperCollins|last=Flanders|first=Judith|year=2003|location=London|isbn=0-00-713189-5|pages=64}}</ref> The practice of emptying one's own chamber pot, known as ], continued in British prisons until as recently as 2014<ref>{{cite news|last1=Cole|first1=Paul|title=Brutal sex killer claims having to slop out cell breaches his human rights|url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/brutal-sex-killer-claims-having-7988459|access-date=8 January 2018|work=birminghammail|date=26 October 2014}}</ref> and was still in use in 85 cells in Ireland in July 2017.<ref>{{cite web|title=Slopping out ended in Cork Prison {{!}} Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT)|url=http://www.iprt.ie/contents/2937|website=www.iprt.ie|access-date=8 January 2018|language=en}}</ref>
The "house of office" was a common name for a toilet in seventeenth century England, used by, among others, ] on numerous occasions: ''October 23, 1660: ...going down into my cellar..., I put my foot into a great heap of turds, by which I find Mr Turner's house of office is full and comes into my cellar.''<ref>"The Diary of Samuel Pepys", Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, Richard Griffin (1892) </ref>


With rare exceptions, chamber pots are no longer used. Modern related implements are ]s and ]s, used in hospitals and the homes of invalids.
===Latrine===
'']'' is a term common in the military, specifically for the Army and Air Force for any point of entry facility where human waste is disposed of, which a civilian might call a bathroom or toilet, regardless of how modern or primitive it is.


Long-established sanitary wear manufacturers in the United Kingdom include Adamsez, founded in ] in 1880, by M.J. and S.H. Adams,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adamsez.com/heritage/|title = Heritage}}</ref> and ], founded in ], ] in 1849, by Thomas Twyford and his son ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.twyfordbathrooms.com/about-us/history/|title = History – TWYFORD BATHROOMS}}</ref>
] (]).]]


====Development of dry earth closets====
==Culture==
{{Further|Dry toilet#History}}
===Toilet training===
]'s earth closet design, {{Circa|1909}}]]
An important part of ] is ].


Before the widespread adoption of the ], there were inventors, scientists, and ] officials who supported the use of "dry earth closets" – nowadays known either as ] or ].<ref name="Moule1880">{{Cite web|title=Fordington, Biography, Rev Henry Moule, 1801–1880|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~fordingtondorset/Files/FordingtonHenryMoule1801-1880.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110509061829/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~fordingtondorset/Files/FordingtonHenryMoule1801-1880.html|archive-date=2011-05-09|access-date=2017-03-29|website=freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com}}</ref>
===Graffiti===
Public toilets have been associated with ], often of a transgressive, ]py, or low-brow humorous nature (cf. ]). The word ''latrinalia'' --from ''latrine'' 'toilet' and ''-alia'', signifying a worthless collection--was coined to describe this kind of graffiti. A famous example of such artwork, was featured on the album cover of the satirical Tony-award Broadway musical ], using felt tip pen scribblings.


====Development of flush toilets====
===Popular culture===
{{Further|Flush toilet#History}}
In November, 2007, the twelfth restaurant in a toilet-themed chain opened in Taipei. ]


Although a precursor to the flush toilet system which is widely used nowadays was designed in 1596 by ],{{citation needed|date=August 2019}} such systems did not come into widespread use until the late nineteenth century.{{citation needed|date=August 2019}} With the onset of the ] and related advances in technology, the flush toilet began to emerge into its modern form. A crucial advance in plumbing, was the ], invented by the Scottish mechanic ] in 1775, and still in use today. This device uses the standing water to seal the outlet of the bowl, preventing the escape of foul air from the sewer. It was only in the mid-19th century, with growing levels of urbanisation and industrial prosperity, that the flush toilet became a widely used and marketed invention. This period coincided with the dramatic ], especially in London, which made the flush toilet particularly attractive for health and sanitation reasons.<ref name=Burnett/>
== How toilet cisterns work ==


Flush toilets were also known as "water closets", as opposed to the earth closets described above. WCs first appeared in Britain in the 1880s, and soon spread to Continental Europe. In America, the chain-pull indoor toilet was introduced in the homes of the wealthy and in hotels in the 1890s. ] invented the ] in 1906, which used pressurized water directly from the supply line for faster recycle time between flushes.
Cisterns are either lever or push button operated. Cisterns operated by a push button are available in single (6L) or dual flush (3L/6L) depending on the range. The majority of cisterns are now internal overflow; this means in the event of a failure, the water will be contained within the unit. A ] is an apparatus which serves several WC pans from one long cistern body. It is designed in this way to allow more frequent flushing. These can be found in schools, colleges and public toilets although are becoming less common.


====High-tech toilet====
=== How they are made ===
{{See also|Toilets in Japan}}
"High-tech" toilets, which can be found in countries like Japan, include features such as automatic-flushing mechanisms; ]s or "bottom washers"; blow dryers, or artificial flush sounds to mask noises. Others include medical monitoring features such as urine and stool analysis and the checking of blood pressure, temperature, and blood sugar. Some toilets have automatic lid operation, heated seats, deodorizing fans, or automated replacement of paper toilet-seat-covers. ]s have been developed in several countries, allowing users to play video games. The "Toylet", produced by ], uses pressure sensors to detect the flow of urine and translates that into on-screen action.<ref name="Wired">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2011/01/sega-urinal-games/|title='Toylet' Games in Japan's Urinals|author=Geere, Duncan.|date=6 January 2011|magazine=Wired UK|access-date=20 January 2011}}</ref>


Astronauts on the ] use a ] with ] which can recover ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/may/HQ_09-096_Recycled_Water_Go.html|title=Gives Space Station Crew 'Go' to Drink Recycled Water|website=www.nasa.gov|language=en|access-date=2017-10-30}}</ref>
Pottery is made by a blend of clays, fillers and fluxes being fused together during the firing process. A white or coloured glaze is applied and is fused chemically and physically to the clay body during the same firing process. The finished product (vitreous china) has a very hard surface and is resistant to fading, staining, burning, scratching and acid attack. Due to the firing process and natural clays used, it is normal for the product to vary in size and shape, and +/- 5mm is normal.


==Manufacturers== ==Names==
{{See also|Toilet (room)#Names|Outhouse#Names}}


{{anchor|Etymology|Terminology}}
List of manufacturers of toilets and fixtures:


===Etymology===
* ]
]'s ''Marriage à la Mode'' series (1743), a young countess receives her lover, tradesmen, hangers-on, and an Italian tenor as she finishes her toilette<ref>See Egerton op cit</ref>]]
* ]
] with her Two Eldest Sons'', ], 1765, (]). She is doing her toilet, with her ] ] on the dressing-table]]
* ]
'''Toilet''' was originally a French ] (first attested in 1540) that referred to the ''{{lang|fr|toilette}}'' ("little cloth") draped over one's shoulders during hairdressing.<ref name="oed">{{citation |title=Oxford English Dictionary|contribution=toilet, ''n.''|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press}}.</ref> During the late 17th century,<ref name=oed/> the term came to be used by ] in both languages for the whole complex of ] and body care that centered at a ] (also covered by a cloth) and for the equipment composing a ], including a mirror, hairbrushes, and containers for powder and makeup. The time spent at such a table also came to be known as one's "toilet"; it came to be a period during which close friends or tradesmen were received as "toilet-calls".<ref name=oed/>{{refn|See, e.g., the description of the ] painting "The Toilette" from his '']'' series in Egerton<ref>{{citation |contribution=The British School |title=National Gallery Catalogues |series=New Series |last=Egerton |first=Judy |page=167 |date=1998 |isbn=1-85709-170-1 }}.</ref> or the extensive discussion of a lady's toilet in ].<ref>{{citation |last=Pope |first=Alexander |author-link=Alexander Pope |title=The Rape of the Lock |title-link=The Rape of the Lock |date=1717 }}.</ref>}}
* Claytan
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* Eljer
* Evac
* ]
* ]
* Karat
* ]
* ]
* ]
* Victory
* ]


The use of "toilet" to describe a special room for grooming came much later (first attested in 1819), following the French ''{{lang|fr|cabinet de toilet}}''. Similar to "powder room", "toilet" then came to be used as a ] for ], particularly in the context of signs for ], as ]. Finally, it came to be used for the ]s in such rooms (apparently first in the United States) as these replaced ]s, ]s, and ]s. These two uses, the fixture and the room, completely supplanted the other senses of the word during the 20th century<ref name=oed/> except in the form "]".{{refn|group=n|The French '']'' ("toilet water") is sometimes used as a sophisticated synonym for perfume and ] but is generally received jokingly, as with '']''{{'}}s parody "If it doesn't say 'eau de toilette' on the label, it most likely doesn't come from the famed region of Eau de Toilette in France and might not even come from toilets at all."}}
== Further reading==


===Contemporary use===
*
The word "toilet" was ] a euphemism, but is no longer understood as such. As old euphemisms have become the standard term, they have been progressively replaced by newer ones, an example of the ] at work.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bell |first=Vicars Walker |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-8WAAAAIAAJ&q=toilet |title=On Learning the English Tongue |date=1953 |publisher=Faber & Faber |language=en}}</ref> The choice of word relies not only on ], but also on social situation and level of formality (]) or social class. American manufacturers show an uneasiness with the word and its class attributes: ], the largest firm, sells them as "toilets", yet the higher-priced products of the ], often installed in more expensive housing, are sold as ''commodes'' or ''closets'', words which also carry other meanings. Confusingly, products imported from Japan such as ] are referred to as "toilets", even though they carry the cachet of higher cost and quality. Toto (an abbreviation of Tōyō Tōki, 東洋陶器, Oriental Ceramics) is used in ] to visually indicate toilets or other things that look like toilets (see ]).
*''Garden Houses and Privies, Authentic Details for Design and Restoration'' by Peter Joel Harrison. John Wiley & Sons, 2002. ISBN 0471203327 Member of the Outhouse Wall of Fame ]
*''Slanguage - a Dictionary of Irish slang'' by Bernard Share. (Dublin,1997) ISBN 0-7171-2683-8
*''Temples of Convenience - And Chambers of Delight'' by ] (NPI Media Group, 2006) ISBN 075243893X
*''Thunder, Flush and Thomas Crapper'' by ] (Michael O'Mara Books, 1997), ISBN 1570760810.


===Regional variants===
==References==
Different dialects use "bathroom" and "restroom" (]), "bathroom" and "washroom" (]), and "WC" (an initialism for "water closet"), "lavatory" and its abbreviation "lav" (]). Euphemisms for the toilet that bear no direct reference to the activities of urination and defecation are ubiquitous in modern Western languages, reflecting a general attitude of unspeakability about such bodily function.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} These euphemistic practices appear to have become pronounced following the emergence of European colonial practices, which frequently denigrated colonial subjects in Africa, Asia and South America as 'unclean'.<ref>Alison Moore, Colonial Visions of ‘Third World’ Toilets: A Nineteenth-Century Discourse That Haunts Contemporary Tourism. In Olga Gershenson and Barbara Penner (eds.), '''' (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009), 97–113.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Anderson|first=Warwick|date=2010|title=Crap on the map, or postcolonial waste|journal=Postcolonial Studies|language=en|volume=13|issue=2|pages=169–178|doi=10.1080/13688790.2010.496436|s2cid=143947247|issn=1368-8790}}</ref>
{{reflist}}


===Euphemisms===
*{{cite book | last = Teresi| first = Dick | coauthors = et al. | title = Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya | publisher = Simon & Schuster| date =2002 | location = New York| pages = 351-352 || isbn = 0-684-83718-8 }}
"Crapper" was already in use{{Citation needed|date=April 2019}} as a coarse name for a toilet, but it gained currency from the work of ], who popularized flush toilets in England and held several patents on toilet improvements.


"The Jacks" is Irish slang for toilet.<ref>{{cite web|title=BBC h2g2|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-lancashire/plain/A3225106|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130628022630/http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-lancashire/plain/A3225106|archive-date=28 June 2013|access-date=25 June 2013}}</ref> It perhaps derives from "jacques" and "jakes", an old English term.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.toiletinspector.com/index.asp?pgid=166|title=Toilet Inspector|access-date=25 June 2013}}</ref>
== See also ==

* ]
"Loo" – The etymology of loo is obscure. The '']'' notes the 1922 appearance of "How much cost? Waterloo. Watercloset." in ]'s novel '']'' and defers to ]'s arguments that it derived in some fashion from ] of ]'s ].<ref name="oedloo">{{citation|title=Oxford English Dictionary|contribution=loo, ''n.⁴''}}.</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Ross|first=Alan S.C.|title=Blackwood's Magazine|date=October 1974|author-link=Alan S. C. Ross|pages=309–316}}.</ref> In the 1950s the use of the word "loo" was considered one of the markers of ] speech, featuring in a famous essay, "]".<ref name="ross1954">{{citation|last=Ross|first=Alan S.C.|title=Neuphilologische Mitteilungen|date=1954|volume=55|contribution=Linguistic Class-Indicators in Present-Day English|location=Helsinki|pages=113–149}}.</ref> "Loo" may have derived from a corruption of French ''{{lang|fr|l'eau}}'' ("water"), ''{{lang|fr|gare à l'eau}}'' – whence ] ''gardy loo'' – ("mind the water", used in reference to emptying ]s into the street from an upper-story window), ''{{lang|fr|lieu}}'' ("place"), ''{{lang|fr|lieu d'aisance}}'' ("place of ease", used euphemistically for a toilet), or ''{{lang|fr|lieu à l'anglaise}}'' ("English place", used from around 1770 to refer to English-style toilets installed for travelers).<ref name="oedloo" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ashenburg |first=Katherine |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/876714657 |title=The dirt on clean : an unsanitized history |date=2008 |isbn=978-1-4668-6776-5 |edition=First |location=New York |pages=138 |oclc=876714657}}</ref><ref>{{OEtymD|loo}}.</ref> Other proposed etymologies include a supposed tendency to place toilets in room 100 (hence "loo") in English hotels,<ref>{{citation|title=Kottke|date=16 February 2005|contribution=Why do they call it the loo?|contribution-url=http://kottke.org/05/02/loo-etymology|access-date=1 August 2015}}.</ref> a sailors' dialectal corruption of the nautical term "]" in reference to the shipboard need to urinate and defecate with the wind prior to the advent of ],{{refn|group=n|Yachtsmen still tend to refer to their toilets as "loos" rather than "heads".{{citation needed|date=April 2016}}}} or the 17th-century preacher ], whose long sermons at Paris's ] prompted his parishioners to bring along chamber pots, and his surname was applied to the pots themselves.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.muzeumnocniku.cz/en/collection/chamber-pots|title=Chamber Pots|website=Muzeum historických nočníků a toalet|access-date=17 July 2016}}</ref>
* ]

* ]
==Gallery==
* ]
{{gallery|align=center|File:Hundertwasser toilet in Kawakawa.jpg|Men's toilet designed by artist and architect ]
* ]
|File:Notariskantoor Valkenswaard 10.JPG|Toilet in ] style
* ]
|File:Wc-bus.JPG|Toilet bus in ], Turkey
* ]
|File:ChildToilet.jpg|Duo toilet for child training in a banquet hall near ], Israel
* ]
|File:Toilet in Croatian National Theater, Zagreb.jpg|Toilet in ], Croatia
* ]
|File:AntipoloToilet.jpg|A public toilet in ], Philippines
* ]
|File:Commode-pedestal UDDT (English) (4270556587).jpg|Instructions on using a ] in Sri Lanka
* ]
}}
* ]

* ]
==See also==
* ]
{{div col|colwidth=25em}}
* ]
* ]
* ], for his publications ''The Good Loo Guide'' (to London), ''Guide Porcelaine to the Loos of Paris'', and ''The Better John Guide'' (to New York).
* ] * ]
* ] * ]
* ]
* ]
* ] * ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ] (zero gravity toilet)
* ] * ]
* ] * ]
* ] * ]
* ]
* ]
* ] * ]
* ] * ]
* ] – organization which focuses on toilets and sanitation at the global level
* ]
* ]
* ]
{{div col end}}
* ]

* ]
== Explanatory notes ==
* ]
{{Reflist|group=n}}
* ] (organizers of the annual "World Toilet Summit")

==References==
{{Reflist}}


==External links== == External links ==
{{Wikivoyage|Toilets|Toilets|travel information}}
{{Commons|Toilet}}
{{Offline|med}}
{{external links|date=November 2007}}
* {{Wikiquote-inline}}
*
* {{Commons-inline}}
*
{{wikinews|Australians need bigger toilets}}
*
* The UK's largest database of public toilets
*
*
*
* - The Pub Review guide focusing on toilets.
*
*
* - French website with toilet picture gallery
*
* - A short history of wells and toilets, free book in pdf format (2005)
* - A short history of the toilet.
*


] {{Toilets}}
{{Wastewater}}
{{Authority control}}


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Latest revision as of 13:08, 26 December 2024

Piece of hardware for the collection or disposal of human excreta This article is about the fixture generally. For the common flush toilet, see flush toilet. For a room containing a toilet, see Toilet (room). For public rooms containing toilets, see Public toilet. For other uses, see Toilet (disambiguation). Not to be confused with Toilette.

A Western flush toilet with a paper seat cover dispenser, waste basket, and toilet brush near the German-Austrian borderSquatRaised pit toilet, Informal settlements KampalaToilets come in various forms around the world, including flush toilets used by sitting or squatting, and dry toilets like pit latrines.

A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human waste (urine and feces), and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be designed for a sitting position popular in Europe and North America with a toilet seat, with additional considerations for those with disabilities, or for a squatting posture more popular in Asia, known as a squat toilet. In urban areas, flush toilets are usually connected to a sewer system; in isolated areas, to a septic tank. The waste is known as blackwater and the combined effluent, including other sources, is sewage. Dry toilets are connected to a pit, removable container, composting chamber, or other storage and treatment device, including urine diversion with a urine-diverting toilet.

The technology used for modern toilets varies. Toilets are commonly made of ceramic (porcelain), concrete, plastic, or wood. Newer toilet technologies include dual flushing, low flushing, toilet seat warming, self-cleaning, female urinals and waterless urinals. Japan is known for its toilet technology. Airplane toilets are specially designed to operate in the air. The need to maintain anal hygiene post-defecation is universally recognized and toilet paper (often held by a toilet roll holder), which may also be used to wipe the vulva after urination, is widely used (as well as bidets).

In private homes, depending on the region and style, the toilet may exist in the same bathroom as the sink, bathtub, and shower. Another option is to have one room for body washing (also called "bathroom") and a separate one for the toilet and handwashing sink (toilet room). Public toilets (restrooms) consist of one or more toilets (and commonly single urinals or trough urinals) which are available for use by the general public. Products like urinal blocks and toilet blocks help maintain the smell and cleanliness of toilets. Toilet seat covers are sometimes used. Portable toilets (frequently chemical "porta johns") may be brought in for large and temporary gatherings.

Historically, sanitation has been a concern from the earliest stages of human settlements. However, many poor households in developing countries use very basic, and often unhygienic, toilets – and nearly one billion people have no access to a toilet at all; they must openly defecate and urinate. These issues can lead to the spread of diseases transmitted via the fecal-oral route, or the transmission of waterborne diseases such as cholera and dysentery. Therefore, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 wants to "achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation".

Overview

The number of different types of toilets used worldwide is large, but can be grouped by:

Toilets can be designed to be used either in a standing (urinatiing), sitting or in a squatting posture (defecating). Each type has its benefits. The "sitting toilet", however, is essential for those who are movement impaired. Sitting toilets are often referred to as "western-style toilets". Sitting toilets are more convenient than squat toilets for people with disabilities and the elderly.

People use different toilet types based on the country that they are in. In developing countries, access to toilets is also related to people's socio-economic status. Poor people in low-income countries often have no toilets at all and resort to open defecation instead. This is part of the sanitation crisis which international initiatives (such as World Toilet Day) draw attention to.

With water

Flush toilet

Main article: Flush toilet
Flush toilet bowl
Toilet flush sound

A typical flush toilet is a ceramic bowl (pan) connected on the "up" side to a cistern (tank) that enables rapid filling with water, and on the "down" side to a drain pipe that removes the effluent. When a toilet is flushed, the sewage should flow into a septic tank or into a system connected to a sewage treatment plant. However, in many developing countries, this treatment step does not take place.

The water in the toilet bowl is connected to a pipe shaped like an upside-down U. One side of the U channel is arranged as a siphon tube longer than the water in the bowl is high. The siphon tube connects to the drain. The bottom of the drain pipe limits the height of the water in the bowl before it flows down the drain. The water in the bowl acts as a barrier to sewer gas entering the building. Sewer gas escapes through a vent pipe attached to the sewer line.

The amount of water used by conventional flush toilets usually makes up a significant portion of personal daily water usage. However, modern low flush toilet designs allow the use of much less water per flush. Dual flush toilets allow the user to select between a flush for urine or feces, saving a significant amount of water over conventional units. One type of dual flush system allows the flush handle to be pushed up for one kind of flush and down for the other, whereas another design is to have two buttons, one for urination and the other for defecation. In some places, users are encouraged not to flush after urination. Flushing toilets can be plumbed to use greywater (water that was previously used for washing dishes, laundry, and bathing) rather than potable water (drinking water). Some modern toilets pressurize the water in the tank, which initiates flushing action with less water usage.

Another variant is the pour-flush toilet. This type of flush toilet has no cistern but is flushed manually with a few liters of a small bucket. The flushing can use as little as 2–3 litres (0.44–0.66 imp gal; 0.53–0.79 US gal). This type of toilet is common in many Asian countries. The toilet can be connected to one or two pits, in which case it is called a "pour flush pit latrine" or a "twin pit pour flush to pit latrine". It can also be connected to a septic tank.

Flush toilets on ships are typically flushed with seawater.

Twin pit designs

Design of a twin pit latrine.

Twin pit latrines use two pits used alternatively, when one pit gets full over a few months or years. The pits are of an adequate size to accommodate a volume of waste generated over one or two years. This allows the contents of the full pit enough time to transform into a partially sanitized, soil-like material that can be manually excavated. There is a risk of groundwater pollution when pits are located in areas with a high or variable water table, and/or fissures or cracks in the bedrock.

Vacuum toilet

Vacuum toilet in a train in Switzerland.

A vacuum toilet is a flush toilet that is connected to a vacuum sewer system, and removes waste by suction. They may use very little water (less than a quarter of a liter per flush) or none, (as in waterless urinals). Some flush with coloured disinfectant solution rather than with water. They may be used to separate blackwater and greywater, and process them separately (for instance, the fairly dry blackwater can be used for biogas production, or in a composting toilet).

Passenger train toilets, aircraft lavatories, bus toilets, and ships with plumbing often use vacuum toilets. The lower water usage saves weight, and avoids water slopping out of the toilet bowl in motion. Aboard vehicles, a portable collection chamber is used; if it is filled by positive pressure from an intermediate vacuum chamber, it need not be kept under vacuum.

Floating toilet

A floating toilet is essentially a toilet on a platform built above or floating on the water. Instead of excreta going into the ground they are collected in a tank or barrel. To reduce the amount of excreta that needs to hauled to shore, many use urine diversion. The floating toilet was developed for residents without quick access to land or connection to a sewer systems. It is also used in areas subjected to prolonged flooding. The need for this type of toilet is high in areas like Cambodia.

Without water

This section is an excerpt from Dry toilet. A dry toilet (or non-flush toilet, no flush toilet or toilet without a flush) is a toilet which, unlike a flush toilet, does not use flush water. Dry toilets do not use water to move excreta along or block odors. They do not produce sewage, and are not connected to a sewer system or septic tank. Instead, excreta falls through a drop hole.

Pit latrine

This section is an excerpt from Pit latrine. A pit latrine, also known as pit toilet, is a type of toilet that collects human waste in a hole in the ground. Urine and feces enter the pit through a drop hole in the floor, which might be connected to a toilet seat or squatting pan for user comfort. Pit latrines can be built to function without water (dry toilet) or they can have a water seal (pour-flush pit latrine). When properly built and maintained, pit latrines can decrease the spread of disease by reducing the amount of human feces in the environment from open defecation. This decreases the transfer of pathogens between feces and food by flies. These pathogens are major causes of infectious diarrhea and intestinal worm infections. Infectious diarrhea resulted in about 700,000 deaths in children under five years old in 2011 and 250 million lost school days. Pit latrines are a low-cost method of separating feces from people.

Vault toilet

A vault toilet is a non-flush toilet with a sealed container (or vault) buried in the ground to receive the excreta, all of which is contained underground until it is removed by pumping. A vault toilet is distinguished from a pit latrine because the waste accumulates in the vault instead of seeping into the underlying soil.

Urine-diverting toilet

This section is an excerpt from Urine-diverting dry toilet. A urine-diverting dry toilet (UDDT) is a type of dry toilet with urine diversion that can be used to provide safe, affordable sanitation in a variety of contexts worldwide. The separate collection of feces and urine without any flush water has many advantages, such as odor-free operation and pathogen reduction by drying. While dried feces and urine harvested from UDDTs can be and routinely are used in agriculture (respectively, as a soil amendment and nutrient-rich fertilizer—this practice being known as reuse of excreta in agriculture), many UDDT installations do not apply any sort of recovery scheme. The UDDT is an example of a technology that can be used to achieve a sustainable sanitation system. This dry excreta management system (or "dry sanitation" system) is an alternative to pit latrines and flush toilets, especially where water is scarce, a connection to a sewer system and centralized wastewater treatment plant is not feasible or desired, fertilizer and soil conditioner are needed for agriculture, or groundwater pollution should be minimized.

Portable toilet

This section is an excerpt from Portable toilet. A portable or mobile toilet (colloquial terms: thunderbox, porta-john, porta-potty or porta-loo) is any type of toilet that can be moved around, some by one person, some by mechanical equipment such as a truck and crane. Most types do not require any pre-existing services or infrastructure, such as sewerage, and are completely self-contained. The portable toilet is used in a variety of situations, for example in urban slums of developing countries, at festivals, for camping, on boats, on construction sites, and at film locations and large outdoor gatherings where there are no other facilities. Most portable toilets are unisex single units with privacy ensured by a simple lock on the door. Some portable toilets are small molded plastic or fiberglass portable rooms with a lockable door and a receptacle to catch the human excreta in a container.

Chemical toilet

This section is an excerpt from Chemical toilet.

A chemical toilet collects human excreta in a holding tank and uses chemicals to minimize odors. They do not require a connection to a water supply and are used in a variety of situations. These toilets are usually, but not always, self-contained and movable. A chemical toilet is structured around a relatively small tank, which requires frequent emptying. It is not connected to a hole in the ground (like a pit latrine), nor to a septic tank, nor is it plumbed into a municipal system leading to a sewage treatment plant. When the tank is emptied, the contents are usually pumped into a sanitary sewer or directly to a treatment plant.

The portable toilets used on construction sites and at large gatherings such as music festivals are well-known types of chemical toilets. As they are usually used for short periods and because of their high prices, they are mostly rented rather than bought, often including servicing and cleaning. A simpler type of chemical toilet may be used in travel trailers (caravans) and on small boats.

Toilet fed to animals

The pig toilet, which consists of a toilet linked to a pigsty by a chute, is still in use to a limited extent. It was common in rural China, and was known in Japan, Korea, and India. The fish pond toilet depends on the same principle, of livestock (often carp) eating human excreta directly.

"Flying toilet"

This section is an excerpt from Flying toilet. A flying toilet is a facetious name for a plastic bag that is used as a simple collection device for human faeces when there is a lack of proper toilets and people are forced to practise open defecation. The filled and tied plastic bags are then discarded in ditches or on the roadside. Associated especially with slums, they are called flying toilets "because when you have filled them, you throw them as far away as you can".

Squat toilets

This section is an excerpt from Squat toilet. A squat toilet (or squatting toilet) is a toilet used by squatting, rather than sitting. This means that the posture for defecation and for female urination is to place one foot on each side of the toilet drain or hole and to squat over it. There are several types of squat toilets, but they all consist essentially of a toilet pan or bowl at floor level. Such a toilet pan is also called a "squatting pan". A squat toilet may use a water seal and therefore be a flush toilet, or it can be without a water seal and therefore be a dry toilet. The term "squat" refers only to the expected defecation posture and not any other aspects of toilet technology, such as whether it is water flushed or not.
  • At Topkapı Palace, Turkey At Topkapı Palace, Turkey
  • Old-style squat toilet (Hong Kong) Old-style squat toilet (Hong Kong)
  • In France In France
  • Porcelain squat toilet with water tank for flushing (Wuhan, China) Porcelain squat toilet with water tank for flushing (Wuhan, China)

Usage

Urination

Main article: Urination
A man seen from behind urinating while standing.

There are cultural differences in socially accepted and preferred voiding positions for urination around the world: in the Middle East and Asia, the squatting position is more prevalent, while in the Western world the standing and sitting position are more common.

Anal cleansing habits

Main article: Anal cleansing
A modern bidet of the traditional type, available in many southern European and South American countries.

In the Western world, the most common method of cleaning the anal area after defecation is by toilet paper or sometimes by using a bidet. In many Muslim countries, the facilities are designed to enable people to follow Islamic toilet etiquette Qaḍāʼ al-Ḥājah. For example, a bidet shower may be plumbed in. The left hand is used for cleansing, for which reason that hand is considered impolite or polluted in many Asian countries.

The use of water in many Christian countries is due in part to the biblical toilet etiquette which encourages washing after all instances of defecation. The bidet is common in predominantly Catholic countries where water is considered essential for anal cleansing, and in some traditionally Orthodox and Lutheran countries such as Greece and Finland respectively, where bidet showers are common.

There are toilets on the market with seats having integrated spray mechanisms for anal and genital water sprays (see for example Toilets in Japan). This can be useful for the elderly or people with disabilities.

Accessible toilets

Main article: Accessible toilet

An accessible toilet is designed to accommodate people with physical disabilities, such as age related limited mobility or inability to walk due to impairments. Additional measures to add toilet accessibility are providing more space and grab bars to ease transfer to and from the toilet seat, including enough room for a caregiver if necessary.

Public toilets

This section is an excerpt from Public toilet. A public toilet, restroom, bathroom or washroom is a room or small building with toilets (or urinals) and sinks for use by the general public. The facilities are available to customers, travelers, employees of a business, school pupils or prisoners. Public toilets are typically found in many different places: inner-city locations, offices, factories, schools, universities and other places of work and study. Similarly, museums, cinemas, bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues usually provide public toilets. Railway stations, filling stations, and long distance public transport vehicles such as trains, ferries, and planes usually provide toilets for general use. Portable toilets are often available at large outdoor events.

Communication through toilets

In prisons, inmates may utilize toilets and the associated plumbing to communicate messages and pass products. The acoustic properties of communicating through the toilet bowl, known as toilet talk, potty talk, toilet telephone is influenced by flush patterns and bowl water volumes. Prisoners may also send binary signals by ringing the sewage or water pipes. Toilet talk enables communication for those in solitary confinement. Toilets have been subject to wiretaps.

Public health aspects

Further information: WASH § Health aspects
Toilets should be innovated and "reinvented" to properly address the global sanitation crisis says the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

To this day, 1 billion people in developing countries have no toilets in their homes and are resorting to open defecation instead. Therefore, it is one of the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6 to provide toilets (sanitation services) to everyone by 2030.

Toilets are one important element of a sanitation system, although other elements are also needed: transport, treatment, disposal, or reuse. Diseases, including Cholera, which still affects some 3 million people each year, can be largely prevented when effective sanitation and water treatment prevents fecal matter from contaminating waterways, groundwater, and drinking water supplies.

History

Further information: History of water supply and sanitation

Ancient history

Sewage and toilet structures in the city of Lothal of the Indus river valley in around 2350 BC.
Roman public toilets, Ostia Antica.
Squatting toilets at Kaludiya Pokuna archeological site, Sri Lanka.
Model of toilet with pigsty, China, Eastern Han dynasty 25–220 AD

The fourth millennium BC would witness the invention of clay pipes, sewers, and toilets, in Mesopotamia, with the city of Uruk today exhibiting the earliest known internal pit toilet, from c. 3200 BC. The Neolithic village of Skara Brae contains examples, c. 3000 BC, of internal small rooms over a communal drain, rather than pit. The Indus Valley Civilisation in northwestern India and Pakistan was home to the world's first known urban sanitation systems. In Mohenjo-Daro (c. 2800 BC), toilets were built into the outer walls of homes. These toilets had vertical chutes, via which waste was disposed of into cesspits or street drains. In the Indus city of Lothal (c. 2350 BC), houses belonging to the upper class had private toilets connected to a covered sewer network constructed of brickwork held together with a gypsum-based mortar that emptied either into the surrounding water bodies or alternatively into cesspits, the latter of which were regularly emptied and cleaned.

Other very early toilets that used flowing water to remove the waste are found at Skara Brae in Orkney, Scotland, which was occupied from about 3100 BC until 2500 BC. Some of the houses there have a drain running directly beneath them, and some of these had a cubicle over the drain. Around the 18th century BC, toilets started to appear in Minoan Crete, Pharaonic Egypt, and ancient Persia.

In 2012, archaeologists found what is believed to be Southeast Asia's earliest latrine during the excavation of a neolithic village in the Rạch Núi archaeological site, southern Vietnam. The toilet, dating back 1500 BC, yielded important clues about early Southeast Asian society. More than 30 coprolites, containing fish and shattered animal bones, provided information on the diet of humans and dogs, and on the types of parasites each had to contend with.

In Sri Lanka, the techniques of the construction of toilets and lavatories developed over several stages. A highly developed stage in this process is discernible in the constructions at the Abhayagiri complex in Anuradhapura where toilets and baths dating back to 2nd century BC to 3rd century CE are known, later forms of toilets from 5th century CE to 13th century CE in Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura had elaborate decorative motifs carved around the toilets. Several types of toilets were developed; these include lavatories with ring-well pits, underground terracotta pipes that lead to septic pits, urinary pits with large bottomless clay pots of decreasing size placed one above the other. These pots under urinals contained "sand, lime and charcoal" through which urine filtered down to the earth in a somewhat purified form.

In Roman civilization, latrines using flowing water were sometimes part of public bath houses. Roman latrines, like the ones pictured here, are commonly thought to have been used in the sitting position. The Roman toilets were probably elevated to raise them above open sewers which were periodically "flushed" with flowing water, rather than elevated for sitting. Romans and Greeks also used chamber pots, which they brought to meals and drinking sessions. Johan J. Mattelaer said, "Plinius has described how there were large receptacles in the streets of cities such as Rome and Pompeii into which chamber pots of urine were emptied. The urine was then collected by fullers." (Fulling was a vital step in textile manufacture.)

The Han dynasty in China two thousand years ago used pig toilets.

Post-classical history

Garderobes were toilets used in the Post-classical history, most commonly found in upper-class dwellings. Essentially, they were flat pieces of wood or stone spanning from one wall to the other, with one or more holes to sit on. These were above chutes or pipes that discharged outside the castle or Manor house. Garderobes would be placed in areas away from bedrooms because of the smell and also near kitchens or fireplaces to keep their enclosures warm.

  • Garderobe seat openings Garderobe seat openings
  • View looking down into garderobe seat opening View looking down into garderobe seat opening
  • Exterior view of garderobe at Campen castle Exterior view of garderobe at Campen castle
  • Toilet in Rosenborg Castle Copenhagen Toilet in Rosenborg Castle Copenhagen

The other main way of handling toilet needs was the chamber pot, a receptacle, usually of ceramic or metal, into which one would excrete waste. This method was used for hundreds of years; shapes, sizes, and decorative variations changed throughout the centuries. Chamber pots were in common use in Europe from ancient times, even being taken to the Middle East by medieval pilgrims.

Modern history

Bourdaloue chamber pots from the Austrian Imperial household
Early 18th century British three-seat privy
19th century thunderbox, a heavy wooden commode to enclose chamber pot

By the Early Modern era, chamber pots were frequently made of china or copper and could include elaborate decoration. They were emptied into the gutter of the street nearest to the home.

In pre-modern Denmark, people generally defecated on farmland or other places where the human waste could be collected as fertilizer. The Old Norse language had several terms for referring to outhouses, including garðhús (yard house), náð-/náða-hús (house of rest), and annat hús (the other house). In general, toilets were functionally non-existent in rural Denmark until the 18th century.

By the 16th century, cesspits and cesspools were increasingly dug into the ground near houses in Europe as a means of collecting waste, as urban populations grew and street gutters became blocked with the larger volume of human waste. Rain was no longer sufficient to wash away waste from the gutters. A pipe connected the latrine to the cesspool, and sometimes a small amount of water washed waste through. Cesspools were cleaned out by tradesmen, known in English as gong farmers, who pumped out liquid waste, then shovelled out the solid waste and collected it during the night. This solid waste, euphemistically known as nightsoil, was sold as fertilizer for agricultural production (similarly to the closing-the-loop approach of ecological sanitation).

In the early 19th century, public officials and public hygiene experts studied and debated sanitation for several decades. The construction of an underground network of pipes to carry away solid and liquid waste was only begun in the mid 19th-century, gradually replacing the cesspool system, although cesspools were still in use in some parts of Paris into the 20th century. Even London, at that time the world's largest city, did not require indoor toilets in its building codes until after the First World War.

The water closet, with its origins in Tudor times, started to assume its currently known form, with an overhead cistern, s-bends, soil pipes and valves around 1770. This was the work of Alexander Cumming and Joseph Bramah. Water closets only started to be moved from outside to inside of the home around 1850. The integral water closet started to be built into middle-class homes in the 1860s and 1870s, firstly on the principal bedroom floor and in larger houses in the maids' accommodation, and by 1900 a further one in the hallway. A toilet would also be placed outside the back door of the kitchen for use by gardeners and other outside staff such as those working with the horses. The speed of introduction was varied, so that in 1906 the predominantly working-class town of Rochdale had 750 water closets for a population of 10,000.

The working-class home had transitioned from the rural cottage, to the urban back-to-back terraces with external rows of privies, to the through terraced houses of the 1880 with their sculleries and individual external WC. It was the Tudor Walters Report of 1918 that recommended that semi-skilled workers should be housed in suburban cottages with kitchens and internal WC. As recommended floor standards waxed and waned in the building standards and codes, the bathroom with a water closet and later the low-level suite became more prominent in the home.

Before the introduction of indoor toilets, it was common to use the chamber pot under one's bed at night and then to dispose of its contents in the morning. During the Victorian era, British housemaids collected all of the household's chamber pots and carried them to a room known as the housemaids' cupboard. This room contained a "slop sink", made of wood with a lead lining to prevent chipping china chamber pots, for washing the "bedroom ware" or "chamber utensils". Once running water and flush toilets were plumbed into British houses, servants were sometimes given their own lavatory downstairs, separate from the family lavatory. The practice of emptying one's own chamber pot, known as slopping out, continued in British prisons until as recently as 2014 and was still in use in 85 cells in Ireland in July 2017.

With rare exceptions, chamber pots are no longer used. Modern related implements are bedpans and commodes, used in hospitals and the homes of invalids.

Long-established sanitary wear manufacturers in the United Kingdom include Adamsez, founded in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1880, by M.J. and S.H. Adams, and Twyfords, founded in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent in 1849, by Thomas Twyford and his son Thomas William Twyford.

Development of dry earth closets

Further information: Dry toilet § History
Henry Moule's earth closet design, c. 1909

Before the widespread adoption of the flush toilet, there were inventors, scientists, and public health officials who supported the use of "dry earth closets" – nowadays known either as dry toilets or composting toilets.

Development of flush toilets

Further information: Flush toilet § History

Although a precursor to the flush toilet system which is widely used nowadays was designed in 1596 by John Harington, such systems did not come into widespread use until the late nineteenth century. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution and related advances in technology, the flush toilet began to emerge into its modern form. A crucial advance in plumbing, was the S-trap, invented by the Scottish mechanic Alexander Cummings in 1775, and still in use today. This device uses the standing water to seal the outlet of the bowl, preventing the escape of foul air from the sewer. It was only in the mid-19th century, with growing levels of urbanisation and industrial prosperity, that the flush toilet became a widely used and marketed invention. This period coincided with the dramatic growth in the sewage system, especially in London, which made the flush toilet particularly attractive for health and sanitation reasons.

Flush toilets were also known as "water closets", as opposed to the earth closets described above. WCs first appeared in Britain in the 1880s, and soon spread to Continental Europe. In America, the chain-pull indoor toilet was introduced in the homes of the wealthy and in hotels in the 1890s. William Elvis Sloan invented the Flushometer in 1906, which used pressurized water directly from the supply line for faster recycle time between flushes.

High-tech toilet

See also: Toilets in Japan

"High-tech" toilets, which can be found in countries like Japan, include features such as automatic-flushing mechanisms; water jets or "bottom washers"; blow dryers, or artificial flush sounds to mask noises. Others include medical monitoring features such as urine and stool analysis and the checking of blood pressure, temperature, and blood sugar. Some toilets have automatic lid operation, heated seats, deodorizing fans, or automated replacement of paper toilet-seat-covers. Interactive urinals have been developed in several countries, allowing users to play video games. The "Toylet", produced by Sega, uses pressure sensors to detect the flow of urine and translates that into on-screen action.

Astronauts on the International Space Station use a space toilet with urine diversion which can recover potable water.

Names

See also: Toilet (room) § Names, and Outhouse § Names

Etymology

In La Toilette from Hogarth's Marriage à la Mode series (1743), a young countess receives her lover, tradesmen, hangers-on, and an Italian tenor as she finishes her toilette
Detail of Queen Charlotte with her Two Eldest Sons, Johan Zoffany, 1765, (the whole painting). She is doing her toilet, with her silver-gilt toilet service on the dressing-table

Toilet was originally a French loanword (first attested in 1540) that referred to the toilette ("little cloth") draped over one's shoulders during hairdressing. During the late 17th century, the term came to be used by metonymy in both languages for the whole complex of grooming and body care that centered at a dressing table (also covered by a cloth) and for the equipment composing a toilet service, including a mirror, hairbrushes, and containers for powder and makeup. The time spent at such a table also came to be known as one's "toilet"; it came to be a period during which close friends or tradesmen were received as "toilet-calls".

The use of "toilet" to describe a special room for grooming came much later (first attested in 1819), following the French cabinet de toilet. Similar to "powder room", "toilet" then came to be used as a euphemism for rooms dedicated to urination and defecation, particularly in the context of signs for public toilets, as on trains. Finally, it came to be used for the plumbing fixtures in such rooms (apparently first in the United States) as these replaced chamber pots, outhouses, and latrines. These two uses, the fixture and the room, completely supplanted the other senses of the word during the 20th century except in the form "toiletries".

Contemporary use

The word "toilet" was by etymology a euphemism, but is no longer understood as such. As old euphemisms have become the standard term, they have been progressively replaced by newer ones, an example of the euphemism treadmill at work. The choice of word relies not only on regional variation, but also on social situation and level of formality (register) or social class. American manufacturers show an uneasiness with the word and its class attributes: American Standard, the largest firm, sells them as "toilets", yet the higher-priced products of the Kohler Company, often installed in more expensive housing, are sold as commodes or closets, words which also carry other meanings. Confusingly, products imported from Japan such as TOTO are referred to as "toilets", even though they carry the cachet of higher cost and quality. Toto (an abbreviation of Tōyō Tōki, 東洋陶器, Oriental Ceramics) is used in Japanese comics to visually indicate toilets or other things that look like toilets (see Toilets in Japan).

Regional variants

Different dialects use "bathroom" and "restroom" (American English), "bathroom" and "washroom" (Canadian English), and "WC" (an initialism for "water closet"), "lavatory" and its abbreviation "lav" (British English). Euphemisms for the toilet that bear no direct reference to the activities of urination and defecation are ubiquitous in modern Western languages, reflecting a general attitude of unspeakability about such bodily function. These euphemistic practices appear to have become pronounced following the emergence of European colonial practices, which frequently denigrated colonial subjects in Africa, Asia and South America as 'unclean'.

Euphemisms

"Crapper" was already in use as a coarse name for a toilet, but it gained currency from the work of Thomas Crapper, who popularized flush toilets in England and held several patents on toilet improvements.

"The Jacks" is Irish slang for toilet. It perhaps derives from "jacques" and "jakes", an old English term.

"Loo" – The etymology of loo is obscure. The Oxford English Dictionary notes the 1922 appearance of "How much cost? Waterloo. Watercloset." in James Joyce's novel Ulysses and defers to Alan S. C. Ross's arguments that it derived in some fashion from the site of Napoleon's 1815 defeat. In the 1950s the use of the word "loo" was considered one of the markers of British upper-class speech, featuring in a famous essay, "U and non-U English". "Loo" may have derived from a corruption of French l'eau ("water"), gare à l'eau – whence Scots gardy loo – ("mind the water", used in reference to emptying chamber pots into the street from an upper-story window), lieu ("place"), lieu d'aisance ("place of ease", used euphemistically for a toilet), or lieu à l'anglaise ("English place", used from around 1770 to refer to English-style toilets installed for travelers). Other proposed etymologies include a supposed tendency to place toilets in room 100 (hence "loo") in English hotels, a sailors' dialectal corruption of the nautical term "lee" in reference to the shipboard need to urinate and defecate with the wind prior to the advent of head pumps, or the 17th-century preacher Louis Bourdaloue, whose long sermons at Paris's Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis prompted his parishioners to bring along chamber pots, and his surname was applied to the pots themselves.

Gallery

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. For a full list of English synonyms, see "toilet" in Wiktionary's thesaurus.
  2. The French eau de toilette ("toilet water") is sometimes used as a sophisticated synonym for perfume and cologne but is generally received jokingly, as with Cosmopolitan's parody "If it doesn't say 'eau de toilette' on the label, it most likely doesn't come from the famed region of Eau de Toilette in France and might not even come from toilets at all."
  3. Yachtsmen still tend to refer to their toilets as "loos" rather than "heads".

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Toilets
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policy aspects
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Wastewater
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