Where does the name loo caome from

[Dave G]

Where does the name loo came from as itis used for a toilet

[Quizmonster]

Nobody knows for certain what the origin of ‘loo' for ‘toilet' is, but here are a few possibilities...
a) There may be a connection between the name 'Waterloo' and the idea of a water-closet (WC).
b) Alternatively, it may come from the French word 'lieu' meaning 'place' and hence the idea of a special, private place for one's bodily functions.
c) Another possibility is that it may be based on the cry of "Gardyloo!" This was basically the cod-French, "Garde l'eau!" or "Beware of the water!" apparently used in 18th century Edinburgh. People there shouted that when they threw the contents of their chamber-pots out into the street!
d) Finally, it has even been suggested that it may be a corruption of ‘lee', meaning ‘the sheltered side', that being the direction in which one should - obviously! - urinate aboard a boat!

A detailed examination of all the possible origins of this word was published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1974. The writer, ASC Ross, favoured 'Waterloo', which is why I listed it first above, but could not definitively prove it. As a result, The Oxford English Dictionary, the 'bible' of word origins, says: "etymology obscure".
There are times when we just have to accept that there is no certain answer.
Certainly, the earliest recorded use of it was in James Joyce's Ulysses published in 1922. He, of course, was noted for a love of playing around with words, so maybe the whole thing is just an Irish joke!

[Quizmonster]

Nobody knows for certain what the origin of ‘loo' for ‘toilet' is, but here are a few possibilities...
a) There may be a connection between the name 'Waterloo' and the idea of a water-closet (WC).
b) Alternatively, it may come from the French word 'lieu' meaning 'place' and hence the idea of a special, private place for one's bodily functions.
c) Another possibility is that it may be based on the cry of "Gardyloo!" This was basically the cod-French, "Garde l'eau!" or "Beware of the water!" apparently used in 18th century Edinburgh. People there shouted that when they threw the contents of their chamber-pots out into the street!
d) Finally, it has even been suggested that it may be a corruption of ‘lee', meaning ‘the sheltered side', that being the direction in which one should - obviously! - urinate aboard a boat!

A detailed examination of all the possible origins of this word was published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1974. The writer, ASC Ross, favoured 'Waterloo', which is why I listed it first above, but could not definitively prove it. As a result, The Oxford English Dictionary, the 'bible' of word origins, says: "etymology obscure".
There are times when we just have to accept that there is no certain answer.
Certainly, the earliest recorded use of it was in James Joyce's Ulysses published in 1922. He, of course, was noted for a love of playing around with words, so maybe the whole thing is just an Irish joke!

[Quizmonster]

Oh, dear! I thought my original answer had disappeared into the ether. Didn't realise the new version of AB had a built-in delay. Sorry.

[gen2]

A further possibility that I read in a magazine some years ago, was that it derived from a habit of French hotels numbering bathrooms with a zero (0) and toilets with a double zero (00), hence the toilet became L'00

[fredpuli47]

L'00 ? The French would read and say that as 'le double zero' though an English traveller might, conceivably, misread it as 'loo' though why they'd take this English misreading of a sign in a French hotel as a regular word to use in English is not clear.They would never have heard a French person reading or saying L'00 as 'loo'

The French, curiously, may call the 'loo' 'le water' or 'le w.c.' when not saying 'les toilettes' or 'les lavabos'. The full French term, now obsolete, which is said to have given us 'loo' is 'lieu d'aisance' [place of ease Cf the American euphemism 'rest room']. Linguists and French teachers won't read 'lieu' as 'loo' but we British do when we say 'in lieu of' and that would explain 'loo' for 'lieu' here.

Gardyloo always seems odd, if it dates only from the C18, when the common people were unlikely to be adopting French, unlike the educated upper classes who would have had to learn it as the language of culture , diplomacy and international business. They, on the other hand, might well adopt a contemporary French term, 'lieu d'aisance', for such a basic room, facility or object, as they did with much else , from cul-de-sac to chaise longue..