toilette

See also: Toilette and toiletté

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French toilette; more at toilet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /twɑˈlɛt/
• Rhymes: -ɛt

Noun

toilette (plural toilettes)

1. Archaic spelling of toilet, in all senses related to dressing and personal grooming, but not a water closet.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 291:

     No such very great degree of genius can be displayed in the rest of the toilette. The dress has been chosen—it fits you à ravir—it has simply to be put on with mathematical accuracy: but the bonnet is the triumph of taste,—you must exert your intellect,—your destiny is in your own hands.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 19, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     He was elaborately attired. He would ogle the ladies who came to lionise the university, and passed before him on the arms of happy gownsmen, and give his opinion upon their personal charms, or their toilettes, with the gravity of a critic whose experience entitled him to speak with authority.

   • 1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 25:

     It is so painful in you, Celia, that you will look at human beings as if they were merely animals with a toilette, and never see the great soul in a man's face.

See also

• demi-toilette
• eau de toilette

French

Etymology

From toile (“cloth”) +‎ -ette.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /twa.lɛt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Agen)):

  (file)

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Noun

toilette f (plural toilettes)

1. toilet
2. (Belgium, North America) the toilet, lavatory
3. routine of grooming or cleaning
   • 1943, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, chapter V, in Le petit prince [The Little Prince], New York: Reynal & Hitchcock:

     C’est une question de discipline, me disait plus tard le petit prince. Quand on a terminé sa toilette du matin, il faut faire soigneusement la toilette de la planète.

     “It’s a question of discipline,” the little prince told me later. “When you’ve finished your morning routine, you have to carefully clean the planet.

Usage notes

• In Belgium and Canada the word for "toilet/lavatory" can be singular (la toilette) while in the rest of the world the noun is only plural (les toilettes).

Derived terms

• brosse de toilettes
• eau de toilette
• gant de toilette
• papier toilette
• trousse de toilette

Descendants

• → Bulgarian: тоале́т (toalét)
• → Dutch: toilet
• → German: Toilette
  • → Estonian: tualett
  • → Hungarian: toalett
• → Greek: τουαλέτα (toualéta)
• Haitian Creole: twalèt
• → Italian: toilette
• → Ottoman Turkish: توالت
  • Turkish: tuvalet
• → Persian: توالت (tovâlet)
• → Polish: toaleta
• → Portuguese: toalete
• → Romanian: toaletă

Further reading

• “toilette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from French toilette. Doublet of teletta.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /twaˈlɛt/, /tu.aˈlɛt/
• Rhymes: -ɛt

Noun

toilette f (invariable)

1. toilet (all senses)
2. makeup
3. dressing table

Anagrams

• toeletti

Portuguese

Etymology

Etymology tree

French toile

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Italic *-tosder.?

Late Latin -ittus

Old French -et

Middle French -et

French -etder.

French -ette

French toiletteubor.

Portuguese toilette

Unadapted borrowing from French toilette.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /to.aˈlɛ.t͡ʃi/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /to.aˈlɛ.t͡ʃi/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /to.aˈlɛ.te/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /twɐˈlɛ.tɨ/

Noun

toilette f (plural toilettes)

1. alternative form of toalete (personal grooming)

Noun

toilette m (plural toilettes)

1. alternative form of toalete (toilet, bathroom)

Further reading

• “toilette”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026