privy house

See also: privy-house

English

Alternative forms

• privy-house

Etymology

From privy (“outhouse”) to clarify the intended sense, likely under the influence of Anglo-Norman privé hostel (attested in an 1139 British source) and Latin domus privata (1141).

Noun

privy house (plural privy houses)

1. An outhouse: an outbuilding used for urination and defecation.
   • 1463, will in S. Tymm's 1850 Wills and Inventories of Bury St. Edmunds, p. 20:

     I wil that ye newe prevy hous ovir the synkke be the dore... serve for the parlour and chambir a loffte.

   • 1776, Young Clerk's Complete Guide, page 106:

     The filthiness and nasty things of the said privy house of office, flowed out... into the cellar aforesaid.

   • 1937, Zora N. Hurston, chapter XIX, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, page 255:

     So far as he's concerned, all dem he don't know oughta be tried and sentenced tuh six months behind de United States privy house at hard smellin'.

   • 2004, D.R. Starbuck, chapter II, in Neither Plain nor Simple, page 116:

     An intact, clapboarded privy house still stands within the foundation of the 1794 ministry barn.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:bathroom

Hypernyms

• house (structurally)
• privy; see also Thesaurus:bathroom