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Thread: Idiomatic expressions about "toilet" needed
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[quote=GRIZ326,292648]As an old sailor, I've been going to the head for years and never thought of going to the head as uncouth. I had to do a web search to recall the story about why a head is called a head on board ship: "The use of the term "head" to refer to a ship's toilet dates to at least as early as 1708, when Woodes Rogers (English privateer and Governor of the Bahamas) used the word in his book, A Cruising Voyage Around the World. Another early usage is in Tobias Smollett's novel of travel and adventure, Roderick Random, published in 1748. "Head" in a nautical sense referring to the bow or fore part of a ship dates to 1485. The ship's toilet was typically placed at the head of the ship near the base of the bowsprit, where splashing water served to naturally clean the toilet area." [/quote]
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