[lit-ideas] Re: Restroom research
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 11:36:10 EDT
In a message dated 5/25/2004 10:15:33 AM Eastern Standard Time,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Of course, as a skirt-wearing Eddie Izzard type this semiological approach
works for me -
---
Then there are places which have (as R. Paul would call them)
'gender-neutral' restrooms. I think they are best.
Of course, too, 'restroom' is a euphemism. More research from the OED,
below. 'restoom' qua WC is an 'implicature' -- 'euphemism' as
_quantity-narrowing_
a la Grice/Horn --. Literally, a restroom is a rest_ing_-room. (Cf.
'living-room': the other rooms are to die?)
The first cite of 'rest-room' is 1899, and it meant (then), 'room to rest'
(as opposed to 'sleep', that's _bed_-room).
Cheers,
JL
-----
From the OED:
rest room,
(a) a room (usu. in a public building) set aside for rest and quiet;
(b) U.S. a lavatory, a W.C.;
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Quotes:
1899 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. May 729
Surely it would not be unreasonable to require that suitable rest-rooms be
provided for the employés.
1918 A. BENNETT Pretty Lady xxvii. 182
Canteens, and rest-rooms, and libraries, and sanitation, and all this damned
â??welfareâ??.
1942 â??M. INNESâ?? Daffodil Affair III. 103
His private research block.. comprised a library, a museum, rest rooms and
living quarters for the subjects.
1955 W. GADDIS Recognitions I. iii. 100
If you serve food you gotta have a rest room for ladies as well as men.
1975 N.Y. Times 8 Nov. 26/2
The totally unsubstantiated forecasts of effects ranging from the abolition
of women's rest rooms to dire financial consequences may well have persuaded
many women that it was safer to accept known evils than to risk unknown
pitfalls.
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