night soil

See also: nightsoil and night-soil

English

Alternative forms

• night-soil
• nightsoil

Etymology

At least notionally because such soil was removed at night by nightmen, and because chamberpots were needed especially at night (when one, in one's nightgown, might be less disposed to leave the house for the outhouse); but the general taboo around human excrement encourages euphemism, and any word in the allusive range of the night–dark–black–bad archetypes might serve as well as another for the purpose; thus, compare blackwater.

Noun

night soil (uncountable)

1. (archaic, euphemistic) Human faeces.
   • 1977, Hillel I. Shuval, Water Renovation and Reuse‎^[1], →ISBN:

     There, the night soil along with the community refuse is filled in trenches for composting and subsequent use in agriculture.

   • 2006, Mario Giampietro et al., “Can Biofuels replace Fossil Energy Fuels?”, in International Journal of Transdisciplinary Research, volume 1, number 1, page 58:

     The flow of nitrogen from night-soil in rural China is valuable, whereas human excrement in an urban center is a pollution problem.

   • 2017, Jennifer Taylor, Echoes of the Moon, →ISBN:

     Time for the local night soil man to appear. He left the inn to find the night man who serviced the place.

Related terms

• nightman

 

Translations

human faeces

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 夜香 (je⁶ hoeng¹), 夜來香／夜来香 (je⁶ loi⁴ hoeng¹)

  Mandarin: 糞便／粪便 (zh) (fènbiàn)

• Finnish: uloste (fi)
• Russian: ночно́е зо́лото n (nočnóje zóloto)