Words similar to water-closet
Example sentences for: water-closet
How can you use “water-closet” in a sentence? Here are some example sentences to help you improve your vocabulary:
In the sixteenth century, an Elizabethan courtier, Sir John Harrington, invented a water-closet with a flushing system and wrote a book on the subject entitled A Metamorphosis of Ajax, published in 1596.
The word first gained general usage in Britain during World War II, and possibly came about as a result of fraternizing with French troops, perhaps as a corruption of l'eau (water) or lieux d'aisance (Water-closet), or even as a derivation of the cry ( Garde á l'eau! , given to warn passerby that someone above was about to slop out (the anglicised form, gardyloo ! , occurs in this context in a novel by Tobias Smollett as early as 1771).
While toilet and lavatory have discarded their original meanings, terms such as bog retained their original meanings (a marshy place) as well as being understood in Britain as a slang synonym for a toilet; it achieved an entry in Hotten's dictionary as early as 1864 as a privy as distinguished from a water-closet.