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

ROGER MILLS wrote:
[snip]
>> I have never heard of a half bathroom called a cloakroom, and I'm from
>> the USA.
>
> LIkewise on both counts.
Well, "half bathroom" would sound silly over here. Either the room has a
bath or it hasn't! If the latter is the case then it ain't a bathroom  :)

I guess "half bathroom" might be understood, if it were understood at
all, to mean that it had a shower rather than a proper bath tub.

[snip]
>
> Half-bath does seem to be current realtor-speak. In my early days, it
> was called "lavatory".
>
Quite so - in my early years such places were also called 'lavatories'
over here in Rightpondia - now-a-days 'toilet' is more common in
ordinary speech. The term "cloakroom" is '[real] estate agent
speak'(just as "half bathroom" is in Leftpondia).

IMHO both "half bathroom" and "cloak room" are unnecessary and silly
euphemisms for lavatory/toilet. Why do realtors/estate agents need to
use such unintuitive euphemisms for this very necessary little room? Is
this peculiar to the USA & the UK. What do these guys do in other
anglophone countries?

Even the good ol' "lavatory" itself was strictly a euphemism - but at
least IME it was never misunderstood.

--
Ray
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Frustra fit per plura quod potest
fieri per pauciora.
[William of Ockham]

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