Do you say bathroom or restroom in public places

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I usually will just ask "is it okay if I use the bathroom?".

I usually just find out where it is for myself, to avoid the difficulty of choosing the right term. As for the people I'm with, it depends on what they're comfy with and whether or not they're eating. Some folks are fine about "I'm just going to take a leak." I rather like "I'm off to point Percy at the porcelain" but it's not for everyone. Generally if I'm visiting the toilet for - er - the other reason, I don't specify that information, though I might if I'm in somebody's house and I know them really well and they're very relaxed about these things. It can be useful for them to know, so they can wait for the stink to dissipate before they go to take a leak, or they can ask to go first and avoid it that way. Strange how most of us are so shy about discussing these things even in this supposedly liberated age. I think the Anglo-Saxons just said it without embarrassment.

Europe: toilet
Canada: washroom
US: restroom

I think bathroom comes from where you take a bath and then it evolved and people now use it to mean take a pee or poop when there isn't a bathtub. The toilet was also in the bathroom so there you go.

I once read a funny post on Facebook and someone wrote how someone asked in Florida where the toilet was (they were from the UK I think) and the desk clerk said "In the bathroom" and I thought it was a rude response. First of all they could be foreign tourists and they might not use the term bathroom where they are from. They don't need to come to America and deal with a rude employee because they didn't use the correct term. Plus you can tell just by their accent they are from another country. But do tell them where the restrooms are and then tell them "we say bathroom or restroom here, not toilet, that is considered an insult." When mom and I went to Europe, we learned fast to say toilets. I already knew they didn't say restroom or bathroom for public toilets. I knew of watercloset and loo.

Except that "Europe" is multiple countries who don't even all speak the same language. They don't call it a toilet all over Europe, they each have their own word for it.

UK: toilet.

And if you've been to the UK, you've been to the UK. It wasn't even "Europe" even before the Referendum. People in the UK even say "Where are you going on your holidays?" "Well we've never been to Europe so we're going to France this year."

Seriously I'm sick of Americans who have always lumped the British Isles in with the continent of Europe. And this isn't even about Brexit, this has Always been this way.

The UK has always been "different" from "Europe" inside or outside the political construct called "Europe.". Britain has never actually been "European" -- it's part of why the relationship never did sit well.

Last edited by BirdInFlight on 30 Jun 2016, 5:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I usually just say washroom, but I don't use public washrooms hardly at all to begin with.

I call the ones with a bath in them "Bathroom".
I call the ones without a bath in them "Restroom".
That means in public I mostly use "Restroom" unless I find out there is a bath in them.
The ones in people's homes can go either way, since many houses have both.

I'm in the UK, and use both 'toilet' and 'bathroom'.

I say "Toilet" don't like the term "Bathroom" as a bathroom is a place where you have a bath or Shower.

I say restroom usually, maybe sometimes bathroom.

But I pretty much never use the restroom to begin with. I'm only comfortable going at home~.

I find it strange sounding when people refer to a bathroom (lavatory) in someone's house as a restroom, they'll say something like "Is it okay if I use your restroom?" while at someone's house.

I say bathroom

I call it "the bog" or if I'm being polite I call it "the ladies".

I don't like the word "toilet".

I ask "where is your bathroom" if I am a guest in someone's private home, and I ask for "the restroom" if I am in a store, or bar, or restaurant, or public business like that.

If I'm with people I know I say I need to take a p- but I say 'Can I use the toilet please?' or 'Do you know where the toilet is?' if I'm with or around unfamiliar people. I don't consider public toilets a bathroom because there are no baths to be found and restroom confuses me because there are benches and stuff around so you don't want to sit in a urinal or on a toilet for a rest and you're not ''resting'' when you're urinating or defecating but that's just me getting caught up on words