The "crapper" - a simple term denoting the toilet

How even the most necessary hidden facility can contribute to the richness of a language's vocabulary

Abstract

Maintaining hygiene was, in days gone by, apparently something that people simply didn't pay any attention to, as people in those days - particularly the so-called simple folk - had little awareness of the importance of cleanliness. The level of hygiene, or rather lack of it, was particularly appalling in rural areas. Proof of the slow progress made in the field of hygiene is the fact that up until the mid 19th century, the Slovene language had no specific term to denote the toilet. When referring to this "sanctum", our predecessors resorted to the use of foreign words. Until the literary Slovenian term "stranišče" (meaning "toilet") finally came into general use, local expressions were used which, in some places, were so obscure as to be understandable to only a small circle of users. The majority of these expressions will probably never be known to us, yet one of these terms, which up until recently lay hidden in the annals of history, came to light in the final verdict of a court case pertaining to a quarrel between two neighbours in Ilirska Bistrica.