potty

See also: pötty

EnglishEdit

From pot (“chamberpot”) +‎ -y (“diminutive suffix”).

potty (plural potties)

(diminutive) A chamber pot, particularly (children) the pot used when toilet-training children.
- 1940, William Carlos Williams, In the Money:
  If you just let him know you want him to go on the potty, or anything, he's miles away.
- 1949, Edith Buxbaum, Your Child Makes Sense: A Guidebook for Parents:
  Mothers very often make the baby and themselves unhappy by setting the child on the potty every hour.
(diminutive) Any other device or place for urination or defecation: a toilet; a lavatory; a latrine; an outhouse.

(chamber pot): See Thesaurus:chamber pot
(other places for urination and defecation): See Thesaurus:toilet and Thesaurus:bathroom

chamber pot — see chamber pot

children's chamberpot

toilet — see toilet

bathroom — see bathroom

latrine — see latrine

outhouse — see outhouse

potty (third-person singular simple present potties, present participle pottying, simple past and past participle pottied)

Derived terms

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

potty (comparative pottier, superlative pottiest)

(informal) Insane.
The noise that the neighbour's kids were making was driving Fred potty.
(golf) Easy to pot the ball on.
- 1890, Golf...: A Weekly Record of "ye Royal and Auncient" Game:
  The Eastbourne Green is by no means a " potty " one, and happily belies its appearance.
- 1909, Rudyard Kipling, The House Surgeon
  "A potty little nine-hole affair at a hydro in the Midlands. My cousins stay there. Always will. Not but what the fourth and the seventh holes take some doing. You could manage it, though," he said encouragingly.

insane — see insane