Akeem Lasisi from Punch
A Lagos-based editor, Bamidele Johnson, a few days ago caused a linguistic stir online. In a Facebook post, he wondered why some people are fond of referring to a toilet as a bathroom. According to him, a toilet is simply a toilet and one should feel free to call it so.
He wrote: “Bathroom? I understand if it has a bathtub or shower tray in addition to a water closet. But calling a toilet without a bathtub or water closet bathroom is “fumbling” taken too far. It gets worse when it’s called restroom as though it has a hammock, sunbed, armchair or is for “lodging and accommodation”. Na overdose go wounjure oyinbo people.
“For Yorubaland na shalanga. For Igbo land na onu-nsi. For Hausaland na salug. For Gaa land na tiafi. For Ashanti land na yarni.”
…Beyond Johnson’s rebellion, the fact is that many people believe that a bathroom is simply that room where people take a bath, while a toilet is where we do the other things – urinate and defecate, for instance. But in the real sense, the connection between the words is more intriguing, if not complicated. Their meanings are interwoven. So, you should always be careful while handling them.
Bathroom
A bathroom can be a combination of both a bath/shower and a toilet. That is why, as the editor (Johnson) too implied, Cambridge Dictionary defines it as ‘a room with a bath and/or shower and often a toilet’.
This indicates that a bathroom can just be a room with a bath. It can be a room harbouring just a shower. It can be one combining a bath and a shower. At times, the bathroom combines the bath/shower and a toilet, but it is not every time the toilet is included.
Toilet
As a noun, a toilet can be the device inside which people urinate or defecate. It can also mean a room with a toilet in it. This is in line with the British English that Nigeria adopted.
American English
The case is more interesting in American English, where a bathroom refers to a room with a toilet. No bath, no shower! So, when you refer to a toilet as a bathroom…
