A toilet by any other name would still smell as bad!

I'm reading Bill Bryson's new book "At Home: A Short History of Private Life" and in it there is a section about the small rooms off the bedchamber, including the cabinet and the privy.

"In England the cabinet became the most exclusive and private of all chambers -- the innermost sanctum where the most private meetings could take place... Often this private room had a small cell or alcove off it, generally known as the privy but also called, among other things, jakes, latrine, draughts, place of easement, necessarium, garderobe, house of office, or gong. Whatever it was called, this room contained a bench with a hole in it, strategically positioned over a long drop into a moat or deep shaft." (p. 61)

I feel a real affinity for Bill Bryson and love all his books. They are full of fascinating details like this. And, in fact, during my summer holidays this year, I spent some time pondering all the various synonyms for the word "toilet." (Yes, this is actually how my mind works.) I thought it would make a neat party game, if you were to put a blank sheet of paper (and pen) on the door to the washroom in your house and have your guests fill in all the different words for "washroom" (past and present) that they can think of before "spending a penny." It would truly be a lexicographic laugh-in!

Here's some of mine, to get the ball rolling:

washroom
toilet
head
porcelain throne
water closet
bathroom
powder room
ladies' room/men's room (or "little girls' room" if you are being cutesy)
facilities
john
loo
can
dunny
bog
outhouse (okay, this last one is kind of a cheat, since it would be located outside the house itself. Ditto, porta-potty.)

I can't think of any more right now. And, besides, I have to take a break and use the necessarium.