There are many questions in life that often go unanswered, such as where on earth those missing socks go or why do pizzas arrive in square boxes?
Or is that just me?
Anyway, I’m pleased to announce that we are about to answer one of the most universally pondered questions there is… what does the WC toilet sign really stand for?
So, while most of us are equipped with the more traditional abbreviations, such as LOL, WTF and LMAO, some are a little harder to decipher.
Take WC, for example, which often appears on toilet doors.
But the room itself is usually referred to as a ‘bathroom’ or ‘restroom’, so what does WC stand for?
It turns out those two letters stand for ‘water closet’, and that there’s also a perfectly good reason behind the name.
It all stems from a time when indoor plumbing became a thing after centuries of popping outside to spend a penny.
As bathtubs were already an indoor fixture in homes, they had a dedicated room – the bathroom, of course.
But people needed somewhere for their brand new, shiny indoor toilet to go.
After someone asked TikToker Nathan (@itsnathannyc) about the term, he explained in a video: “Oh, you sweet young thing! WC stands for ‘water closet’.
“Before indoor plumbing, you actually had a room for your bathtub – the bathroom.
“But the spout was outside. You had to carry water in with a bucket, heat it up, pour it in the tub.
“Indoor plumbing comes along – they already have this room with the bath, the bathroom… Where do you put the toilet?
“You just put it in a closet. It was an easy place to put a toilet. So: the water closet.
“It was the one room in the house where there was running water.”
Many other TikTokers admitted they’d never realised what WC stood for, or why, with one person commenting: “I’m glad someone asked because I’ve been wondering about this for years but never googled it.”
Someone else said: “I never actually thought about this.”
And another added: “I was 23 y/o when I learned that WC is called a water closet.”
While the fourth piped up to say: “Can’t believe I’ve been living with a WC sign and had no idea why it was called WC.”
For any history buffs reading this, here’s a more detailed account of how the humble water closet came to be.
Old House Online states: “In the 1870s, most folks did their business—as infrequently as possible—in two ways: in a hole in the ground, or in a chamber pot (often concealed in a ‘commode,’ ‘cabinet chair,’ or box-like ‘close stool’). A ‘toilet’ was just a dressing table or washstand, a meaning that eventually got flushed away when water closets adopted the moniker.
“In the 1880s, the earliest flushing water closets were made to resemble familiar chamber pots and commodes. However, it wasn’t long before folks discovered that wood, water, and other (ahem) stuff didn’t mix. Those great bathroom suites of Gilded Age mansions were heaven to behold, but hell to maintain, and by the late 1880s, “open plumbing” was coming into vogue, with porcelain fixtures in full view.”
So, while the old, cramped and closeted style of the water closet didn’t remain, and transformed over time into the spacious, tiled bathrooms we enjoy today, the phrase ‘water closet’ has stuck and remains on signage worldwide to this day.
Learn something new everyday, right?
Sources: tyla.com; joe.co.uk
