body waste

[4getmenot]

Well I'm asking this for crete as he/she put it on another post and it has intrigued me. Why do they call a wee a number 1 and a poo a number 2?

[redcrx]

it may be best to ask on phrases and sayings :)

[Ed Strong]

Cos you usually go in that order?

[4getmenot]

you're alot of help. I'm asking on here ta coz usually people are more helpful on here

[4getmenot]

Do you Ed? I go in the order of what I need first.

[redcrx]

awww sis, sorry, was just trying to help. Put it on both, i wont tell

Ed i think i must be a bit backwards at times then lol

[4getmenot]

plus redcrx its a bit too rude for phrases and sayings. Body and Soul are used to it :-)

[4getmenot]

Well I asked on phrases and sayings and it got banned already!!.

[redcrx]

shall i ask?

[nat_84]

maybe....

one = wee because it all comes out at ONCE

and

two = because it doesnt all come out in one go......

[Champagne]

That's not quite true, Nat. Have you never had those 'angel' poos? The ones that come out in one swift movement and when you wipe there's no evidence that it was ever there?!!

[Octavius]

I don't think it has any particular origins, perhaps as Ed suggests, or perhaps you use hole number one for number ones and so on.

It is a euphamism for replacing the more vulgar words, with phrases that can be used in polite company - such as with children.

There are any number of lengthier periphrases for excretion used to excuse oneself from company, such as to powder one's nose or to see a man about a horse (or dog) or doo-doo's etc. Slang expressions which are neither particularly euphemistic nor dysphemistic, such as take a leak, form a separate category.

QM may correct me on the route use or first known usage if there is any historic record.

[nat_84]

hmmm... champagne...

certainly does ring a bell......

but more often than not its just not so easy......wouldnt u say?

[Quizmonster]

Since the late Victorian age, urination and defecation have been labelled 'No 1' and 'No 2', simply as polite versions of the names for these processes. I imagine they were put into that sequence because '1' is generally rather more frequent than '2'!
(Such euphemisms were common then...hence the use of 'pee', that being the sound of the opening letter of the four-letter word that ends in 'iss'. Much too crude for the supposedly prim and proper Victorians!)

[Champagne]

I know Nat. I wear nappies. :o\

[4getmenot]

Champagne those are called ghost poo's and octavious and quiz I'm sure if they were really that polite ther would be no need to tell anyone they were going for a number 1 or 2! :-) lol

[Ed Strong]

Hey peeps, it was just a helpful suggestion not a detailed version of my personal toilet habits. :o)

[4getmenot]

I'm sure it wasnt Ed ;-)

[Octavius]

The p word (as in iss) is used a number of times in the bible! As QM says probably the Victorians, the inventors of several mechanical sex machines (those who have been to that museum in Pargue will know what I am talking about) may have diligently read their bibles and come across the p word. Much the same way us 2nd elizabethans refer to the c word and the f word when trying not to be offensive or vulgar.

[Champagne]

Did you know that the flushable toilet was invented by the Chinese and not, in fact, by Thomas Crapper? True fact that.

[Quizmonster]

I should have made it clearer, 4, that these were 'nursery' words originally. I don't expect a bloke in a Victorian pub said to his mates: "I'm off for a No 1" in fact!