• WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    You just made me realize that I’m an idiot.

    My brain always associated pot with weed… probably from all the pot… but pot just meant potty… I don’t know how I survived this long, or why people pay me money to solve problems.

    • chaogomu@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      Pot as a word for toilet actually comes from the chamber pot.

      There are a bunch of other words for a toilet, but tracking down their origins is hard.

      For example, calling it a John could refer to the inventor of the flush toilet, John Harington, or as a corruption for an earlier term the Jakes/Jacks. (Kit Harington is a relation)

      Jake and Jack were very common names in medieval England, much like John is today. So if you were a noble, your chamber pot would be emptied by a commoner, and the stand in name was Jake.

      Other toilet names like bog or loo come from the smell.

      The head was traditionally located at the front of ships, especially in the British navy…

      There are dozens more (in English alone), but origins are hard to track down for most of them.