Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by goldenkey | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

goldenkey

What does WC stand for?

View on HN

Water closet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_toilet

Thanks, I can't believe I had never heard that synonym for toilet until now!

You’ve never been to Canada, Europe, or India?

Not everyone gets the luxury of traveling around the world.

Ya, but couldn't find any toilets so just held it in whole time.

I've been to all of those places and only ever heard it called a WC or "water closet" in my high school french class.

It's fading out of use in most of Europe, as far as I can tell. My grandmother used to always say WC in Norway. I don't know of anyone in my parents generation (born around 1950) or younger that'd use it. We're mostly all familiar with it still though.

It’s still pretty common in at least Germany and Austria, but is superseded by „Toilette“.

In Finnish WC morphed at some point into a proper Finnish word, ”Vessa”.

In Norway in formal use it was superseded by "toalett". In informal use "do" is also pretty common. I don't know the etymology of that.

German and Austrian inspection toilets terrify me.

We don't really say that in Canada.

Not common in Canada at least not in the twentyfirst century. I’m from western Canada and have visited most other provinces.

It's also another way to say bathroom in Serbian! I had no idea other languages used it, too.

Very common across Europe. I'd say almost universal.

I was introduced to the term by Anne Frank's diary.

It is a common German word too.

The only place I remember seeing it is in The Diary of Anne Frank. I'd guess it's on British tv/radio, too.

Is English your mother tongue?

In South America, people use WC, Patent (because it was written on the loo), or just Water (in Uruguay, at least) a lot. So it would be funny if (at least WC) was not as known in the English-speaking world. Patente (used in Brazil) is obviously just derived from the Patent label.

Italians use "water" (spelled váter") or WC (spelled "vee-chee"), rarely "tazza" or the less elegant "cesso".

In Brazil, WC is pronounced "ve-ce". And "water" in Uruguay is "guater".

In Germany, Crapper manufactured toilet bowls are still common.

WC is extremely common in Turkey too.

I think it would be pretty easy to go through life in the US without ever hearing a toilet called a WC; I'm familiar with the abbreviation but I'm not even sure how, because I can't remember ever hearing or reading it.

I've seen the abbreviation used on building plans in USA, in the past ten years. It did seem out of place, but all architects have some screwy habit that makes their plans more difficult to read.

According to my grandfather, when he was growing up poor in southern Illinois in the 1930s, "toilet" was a crude word and people said "W.C." to be polite. Outhouses were more common than toilets, to the extent that old-timers then thought it was disgusting to defecate in the same building where one slept. Perhaps "water closet" seemed an appropriately exotic term.

Never heard of a loo being called "Patente" in Brazil. Guessing it is a very specific regional thing? Also, "WC" as synonim for a bathroom as read in signs is not as common as once was. Word is "Sanitário" pretty much everywhere now.

Apparently, this word started in Londrina, as they had toilets imported from England that had PATENTED written on them. But it is used in all the southern states at least.

It's faded out of use. My grandmother even had a joke about someone asking about a WC and getting a description of the local wesleyan chapel.

Here's a version, but I don't think my grandmother's relied on foreign language as a device: http://www.brinkmanonline.com/humor/church/wc.html

Interesting, I’m from the US and I’ve never heard WC (or seen it in a toilet come to think of it)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com