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Not to mention the Privy Council, so named because they were trusted to speak to the King while he was on the toilet!

I don’t think the modern day Privy Council ever met with Elizabeth II in such a way!

I don't think that's why it's called a "Privy Council". Just because the only meaning for privy that you know, today, is a toilet, does not mean that the word in another context means toilet, any more than the fact you know the verb "do" in English can be slang for sexual intercourse means that when Marlo says "Do it or don't" in The Wire he means for his soldiers to have sex. He's indicating that he doesn't care whether they murder Bubbles.

"Privy" more generally means private or personal, which explains its use for a group which advises specifically the monarch alone.

I just checked and you’re right! I’m mixing it up with Groom of the Stool, which was a separate but also honourable position.

> According to the Oxford dictionary the definition of the word "privy" in Privy Council is an obsolete one meaning "Of or pertaining exclusively to a particular person or persons; one's own",[3] insofar as the council is personal to the sovereign.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privy_Council_of_England#Name

Yep, you’re right. I was mixing it up with Groom of the Stool.

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