toilet

Where does the word "toilet" come from? It comes from French toilette, and was adopted directly into English (1600s).

Toilet’s story begins in French: toilette meant “a little cloth, a dressing cloth.” Literally a little cloth, originally the cloth covering a dressing table. It reached English by 1600s as toilet. Broadened from the dressing routine to the room, and later the fixture itself. Today, toilet means a fixture for the disposal of urine and feces, or the act of washing and dressing.

1. Stage 1 · French · 1500s toilette "a little cloth, a dressing cloth", literally a little cloth, originally the cloth covering a dressing table.
2. Stage 2 · English · 1600s toilet "a fixture for the disposal of bodily waste", broadened from the dressing routine to the room, and later the fixture itself.