house of office

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English

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Etymology

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From the mostly archaic sense of office as a "duty" or "function" and hence unmentionable "bodily functions".

Noun

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house of office (plural houses of office)

  1. (obsolete, euphemistic) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.
    • 1660 20 October, Samuel Pepys, diary:
      Going down my cellar to look, I put my foot into a heap of turds, by which I find that Mr Turner’s house of office is full and comes into my cellar, which doth trouble me; but I will have it helped.
    • 1764 August 5, David Garrick, letter:
      I never, since I left England, till now, have regal'd Myself with a good house of Office... the holes in Germany are... too round, chiefly owing... to the broader bottoms of the Germans.
    • 1823, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto XI, §xl, ll. 123 f:
      The very clerks—those somewhat dirty springs
      Of office, or the House of Office.

Synonyms

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References

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  • Oxford English Dictionary. "office, n."