Favourite euphemisms for ... OMG, I don't have a non-euphemism for this! Oh except "dunny"

[snorri]

Anyway, if the OED can't find any reference to "the head" coming from sailors pooping over the bows, I'm sticking with it being an myth.

Thanks for the attempt to get us back on topic.

 

[Brains]

This source supports your view that it refers to the location of the toilet on board:

The "head" aboard a Navy ship is the bathroom. The term comes from the days of sailing ships when the place for the crew to relieve themselves was all the way forward on either side of the bowsprit, the integral part of the hull to which the figurehead was fastened.​

Which is also the derivative of 'Netty'

 

[Tim Hall]

And let's all agree "I heard on QI" beats "I've experienced this"
</sarcasm>

Can we add the following to the scale:
Steve Wright Factoid
Wikipedia
Public Service Information Film

Determining the positions of these elements is left as an exercise for the reader.

 

[jefmcg]

With apologies both for the re-derail

Yes! We should stop this interesting diversion into maritime/naval history and return to the important subject of euphemisms for .... <search> no one has used this one yet! - the outhouse. Poopers before schooners!

On related words, a couple of other phrases have popped into my head:

• night soil
• night soil man
• groom of the stool

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Visiting the room with a view (for mountain hut toilets usually set above a big cliff)

 

[srw]

Yes! We should stop this interesting diversion into maritime/naval history and return to the important subject of euphemisms for .... <search> no one has used this one yet! - the outhouse. Poopers before schooners!

In her Flavia Alba books set in Imperial Rome Lindsey Davis has her main character use the euphemism "six-seater". Which, as anyone with a passing knowledge of the ancient world knows, is an accurate description (although they stole the idea, like much of their culture, from the Greeks.)

And as well as an extremely interesting discussion of sexism in ancient Rome and the modern world there's an aside from Mary Beard in her discussion with Dan Snow in the latest edition of his podcast on the fact that we don't know the etiquette for how one actually used them- did you strike up a polite conversation with your next-door neighbour or sit as far as way from her as you could?

You've got 19 days left to watch an hour-long exploration of the toilet through history which covers some of the language we've used in the past.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

In her Flavia Alba books set in Imperial Rome Lindsey Davis has her main character use the euphemism "six-seater". Which, as anyone with a passing knowledge of the ancient world knows, is an accurate description (although they stole the idea, like much of their culture, from the Greeks.)

And as well as an extremely interesting discussion of sexism in ancient Rome and the modern world there's an aside from Mary Beard in her discussion with Dan Snow in the latest edition of his podcast on the fact that we don't know the etiquette for how one actually used them- did you strike up a polite conversation with your next-door neighbour or sit as far as way from her as you could?

You've got 19 days left to watch an hour-long exploration of the toilet through history which covers some of the language we've used in the past.

They still have that kind in China. I had the local kids come in to look at the westerner using them. No words other than smilimg.

 

[jefmcg]

You've got 19 days left to watch an hour-long exploration of the toilet through history which covers some of the language we've used in the past.

Damnit. I can't. I don't pay the license fee, and I am a good girl, so don't watch things that require it.

(If I find it on a pirate site .....)

 

[glasgowcyclist]

If we're allowed an Americanism: the john.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Also: the can.

 

[Tim Hall]

Did we have "the usual offices" yet?