"Mi devas uzi la necesejon."

Ja, I think that lavatory would the best option (if people still knew what it meant).

And yes, the word toilet is a euphemism, but it's still pretty hard to say that it's not the next best word, it's quite hard to misinterpret out of context and doesn't really violate any taboos or "give too much information".

Indeed, I was trying to think whether we had a word that was neither a euphemism nor considered unacceptable in official speech. Urinal has always meant the thing attached to the wall in a public men's room, I think, rather than the room. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ was a brand name, I think. My grandfather would refer to it as the outhouse or WC, but those are euphemisms as well.

I didn't take offence. I do apologize, if I sounded snippy. This, I'm afraid, is just me talking about words.

I did make it clear that I meant no offence, and I was trying to point out that, as a natural language, English make this distinction by default.

That said, I do accept your explanation of why Americans speak as they do.

People, please don't assume that other people are being nasty just because they point out that they do things differently in other countries, we're actually sharing our knowledge, not forcing it on you.

So, then, what is your particular bigotry based on? Was Mark Twain really that much more prudish than Charles Dickens? Was Walt Whitman really that much more prudish than Alfred Tennyson?

Because Americans AREN'T embarassed to say "toilet", it's just not a common word for us to use. That's how we talk. You received an acceptable answer.

No one's asking why English people are embarrassed to say "elevator" or why Australians are embarrassed to say "shrimp". That'd be silly. It's just a difference in words used based on dialect.

@JohnReid8 I have literally just entered this conversation now and have not been involved until the post which you replied to. I am not saying anything "nasty". I do not need to "stop myself". You, however, should not be so condescending. Your recent comment directed at me was wholly unneeded and unnecessarily patronizing.

You say you googled "Why are Americans embarrassed to say 'toilet'?" and found no answer. You say no one can give a satisfactory answer, when it looks like you are just refusing to accept one that is given. I am a native speaker of American English and I can assure you that we just do not commonly say we are going to the "toilet", and it is just because of our dialect, not prudishness. If someone were to say "toilet" instead of "restroom", or "bathroom", they wouldn't be looked at as if they just committed a cardinal sin of vulgarity. Onlookers would not blush in embarrassment at what a disgusting term had just been uttered. That person might just get looked at funny for saying a word that seemed "out of place". Same, perhaps, as if they had called it a "loo".

I believe that is indeed "sound logic", as being a native speaker of a language gives me the necessary experience pertaining to its qualities. You on the other hand, have offered nothing in the way of "logic" other than your general disdain for American English being too "prudish". I'm not sure which dialect you would prefer, but you have gone to the point of insulting Americans and their language because it is "different" from other dialects of English, and it has approached a point where it is reaching a personal level.

If answering your original question will put an end to this ridiculous debate, here goes: Americans use "bathroom" most commonly because, in most houses, the room that contains a toilet also contains a bathtub. In fact, that is so common in our houses that a room with a toilet and no tub is typically called a "half bath". As children, when we are learning to speak English, we call the room-whose-name-is-being-debated the "bathroom", as the largest and most prominent feature in it is the bathtub. As we grow older, we call all "toilet rooms" bathrooms in casual conversation, simply out of habit. Because when we were two years old and learning how to use the toilet (which in AmE is strictly the porcelain throne itself), the "bathroom" was indeed the ROOM we were going to in order to do that.

In short, the object itself is the toilet, and the room it's usually found in is the bathroom. Though in public, you will probably hear people call it a "restroom" often.

@JohnReid8 I see you still have failed to spend any time in actual research, instead harassing us about our explanations, which are distinctly more believable than yours. Spanish is the type of answer that pure logic without the counterbalance of any evidence would get you.

And, yes, "what is it with those weird people and the way they talk? It makes no sense at all." is pretty offensive.

During the 1630s, a great many Puritans did migrate to New England, though more remained in England, where they killed their king. We then had an enormous amount of immigration in the nineteenth and twentieth century. I dare say more of you are descended from Puritans than we (though I myself am). In any case, that is a matter of the seventeenth century, which is less relevant than the twentieth century matter I refer to below. In any case, your equation of religion and prudery is not obvious to me. In my lifetime, both Soviet and Chinese cultures have been notably irreligious and notably prudish, for instance.

@DavidStarner

Would you like me to get a moderator involved to pass judgement on your offensive and malicious comments?

Your options are, Yes, No, and getting a mod involved yourself.

Go ahead and save me the trouble.

@RobinKane

Am I getting nasty just because I find something hard to work out? Am I lashing out for no good reason? No I'm not, and it will help for people to take you seriously if you can just spot when you're in a mood to say something nasty and stop yourself.

Oh, and if you can use sound logic when making an argument, that can go a long way for some people too.

Etymology is the science of where a word comes from, it has nothing to do with how a word is used now.

Upon seeing your comment (David), I did an internet search to try to figure the answer out, and the closest that I came to an answer was that Americans are too embarrassed to say toilet.

So I googled "Why are Americans embarrassed to say toilet?", and guess what, nobody can say why, at all, it's just more "Oh, we don't talk like that".

A satisfactory answer just hasn't made its way on to the internet.