Gennel or Gunnel. Lobby or under stairs, Larder or pantry?.


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OK. Let's try another room. Why did posh buggers have a room called a Drawing Room? Did they sit in there with a sketch pad and a selection of Staedtler sticks?

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#1 - Larder wasn't too posh for the Russians to drive round in though !

Quilt & duvet - two different things.

Water Closet

The hell is a drawing room? Dinning room? Spare room?

Why can't people's lives be simple. Living room/lounge. Dinning room. Bathroom. Kitchen. Bedroom .... Simples.

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It was originally a "Withdrawing room" and was the room to withdraw to after dinner, the Ladies first whilst the Gentlemen passed the port and smoked cigars in the Dining Room, obviously in a house of sufficient size to accommodate more than the scullery and living room as in Comyn street!

The rise of the middle class required that such terminology be utilised even though their houses were not always on the same grand scale, but as the houses became smaller, it was still necessary to maintain the illusion, hence the "confusion" in our much more modest sized houses.

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Re #29, the Geography teacher at BHGS really had a thing about us using the word toilet WHEN WE MEANT THE LAVATORY !!

He enjoyed telling us that "toilet" was the process of washing and bathing, and we always wondered why he was so pedantic.

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Re #29, the Geography teacher at BHGS really had a thing about us using the word toilet WHEN WE MEANT THE LAVATORY !!

He enjoyed telling us that "toilet" was the process of washing and bathing, and we always wondered why he was so pedantic.

Which teacher - Don Ager?

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Thanks for that. I knew I should have gone to Specsavers.

Now then! What did folk call this bathroom without a bath when it was at the end of the garden. After all, we didn't keep the dirty things in the house in those days.

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Re #29, the Geography teacher at BHGS really had a thing about us using the word toilet WHEN WE MEANT THE LAVATORY !!

He enjoyed telling us that "toilet" was the process of washing and bathing, and we always wondered why he was so pedantic.

I hear what he says - but when you remember that "laver" is French for "to wash" it seems to me that lavatory and toilet mean much the same thing (and bathroom picks up on the same theme). In other words, more or less every expression is a euphemism.

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What is the difference between a cooker and an oven? I'm only a mere man, what do I know about these things ?

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An oven is the bottom bit where you cook the roast etc, the cooker is the whole thing, (Hob, grill , oven)

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Thanks Beefsteak , I can now impress the wife with my vast knowledge . That should get me a couple of Brownie points.

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And where's the fan ?

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