house of easement
English edit
Etymology edit
From easement in its former euphemistic use to reference the easing of one's bowels.[1]
Noun edit
house of easement (plural houses of easement)
- (euphemistic, obsolete) An outbuilding in which to do one's easement (defecate): an outhouse.
- 2011, Lucy Worsley, “The Whole World is a Toilet”, in If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 153:
- [T]he lowest servants at Hampton Court used the great communal toilet capable of seating fourteen people at once named the ‘Common Jakes’ or the ‘Great House of Easement’. This giant facility discharged into a tank which was washed clean by the waters of the moat. Even so, the tank emitted a dreadful smell and frequently had to be scrubbed clean.
Synonyms edit
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
References edit
- ^ "easement, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary (1891), Oxford: Oxford University Press.