Cloak room... x: [YAEUT] Lexical variation survey

R A Brown wrote:
> Peter Collier wrote:

>> "familiy bathroom" (i.e. main bathroom, typically toilet, sink and
>> bath with shower) and "downstairs cloaks" ('cloakroom', i.e. small
>> downstairs toilet and sink - e.g. for guests)
>
> Yep - the 0.5 bathroom of the USA is a 'cloak(room)' as far as estate
> agents are concerned. It's said to be derived from Public School (i.e.
> posh private school) slang where 'cloak' = 'cloaca' (Latin for "sewer"  :)
That's interesting.  For some reason I'd always thought the "cloak room"
was a clothes-closet that was located near the front or back door, that
you would take off your cloak (that is, long-coat), put it on a hanger,
and hang it in the "cloak room" before heading on into the house proper.

Funny how the differences in American English and British English trip
us up, eh?  :D


--
       Nomad of Norad (David C. Hall)  ---  *TeamAmiga*
nomad@joshua-wopr.com --- http://www.joshua-wopr.com/
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For a dementedly wacky sci-fi continue-the-story project,
join my WebBBS. http://www.joshua-wopr.com/phpBB/index.php
----------------------------------------------------------
This is the Emergency Backup .Signature File, it kicks in
if the Regular Backup .Signature File fails to load.

Reply