Surprising one for me was "all dressed" as a term for, e.g., a pizza with all the toppings.
Apparently it's a direct translation from French and is pretty exclusive to Quebec English and the Easternmost part of Ontario (which is heavily French).
And Saskatchewan. Which the site notes is "a bit of a mystery".
Also found "parkade" interesting--apparently it's still much more heavily used in Western Canada, and they attribute that to it having been "seeded" by some Hudson's Bay advertisements run at their original 6 locations all in Western Canada.
Some other words/terms that surprised me: renoviction, gong show, kerfuffle, off-sale, stagette
jdougan · 1d ago
I (West Coast) pretty much entirely associate "all-dressed" with potato chips.
StrictDabbler · 1d ago
As a West Coaster, I had to look up nearly every term in this article. As usual, "Canadian" almost entirely means the central/east areas.
SketchySeaBeast · 1d ago
It's just like "aboot" and milk in bags.
mikrl · 1d ago
Dressed all over, zesty mordant, and gelapenno.
The goalie trinity right there
madcaptenor · 1d ago
I (US) also associate "all-dressed" with potato chips since we started getting them down here.
c-hendricks · 1d ago
The Works is usually a the name for the pizza. Chiming in for the east coast, all dressed is chips.
cwillu · 1d ago
Having spent a large portion of time answering phones in the pizza business, I can assure you that a great many people in Saskatchewan will order an all-dressed pizza even though we had no such thing on the menu.
nucleardog · 1d ago
Yeah, mostly came as a surprise to me because I've spent most of my time in Saskatchewan and Ontario near the Quebec border. I somehow managed to spend my entire life bouncing around Canada and never spend much time anywhere where "all dressed pizza" didn't exist, even though it's apparently a highly-specific term.
tomjakubowski · 1d ago
The Works is pretty common in the US, too. Pizza and sandwich toppings
throaway955 · 1d ago
in MB, never heard of all-dressed pizza in my life. We have the chips and the works pizza
kps · 1d ago
And bagels.
rufus_foreman · 1d ago
It was an Everything pizza at the place I worked at as a kid. They're disgusting.
SecretDreams · 1d ago
Old, but good, CBC documentary on this type of thing:
> And Saskatchewan. Which the site notes is "a bit of a mystery".
There's no mystery. This is rubbish research. In parts of Manitoba we also use all-dressed for the same purpose (and of course chips). The unifying factor is French culture. The Riel Rebellion helped bring tremendous franocphones, and French culture out west. There are areas like St. Boniface in Winnipeg where s some people speak only French. The Metis are in both Manitoba and Quebec...
ShroudedNight · 1d ago
It's been a long time now, but from what I remember from school, a critical part of the notability of Gabrielle Roy[1] was that she wrote from the perspective of francophones living in the prairies.
I appreciate the DHCP-3 is not a monolithic work, but to have both authorship and editorial oversight of a corpus that presents itself as a rigorous treatise of Canadianisms demonstrate either broad ignorance of, or reckless disregard for a significant portion of our heritage is just baffling to me. What's the point if one is not going to be ruthlessly thorough?
A lot of French history has been erased from the Canadian West
throaway955 · 1d ago
Manitoba was founded by French speakers (the Metis) and about 2000 Metis were supposed to get most of what is now downtown Winnipeg. Their culture was eventually suppressed by Ontario.
asplake · 1d ago
Kerfuffle is British - quite common here. 19th century Scots apparently!
zahlman · 1d ago
> Surprising one for me was "all dressed" as a term for, e.g., a pizza with all the toppings.
What on Earth. Wikipedia tells me:
> An all-dressed chip called The Whole Shabang is produced by American prison supplier Keefe Group. It became available to the general public in 2016.[4] Frito-Lay began selling all-dressed Ruffles potato chips in the United States that same year.[5]
I had assumed the entire time that everyone uses this term for potato chips (and that everyone has the flavour) and that the Quebecois were just being weird by also applying it to pizza.
--
"Renoviction" is a very recent neologism that's mainly used in the specific major cities where it's an issue (because of the housing market).
"Gong show" I think is relatively old-fashioned (as in Gen X) by comparison. I'm actually surprised Americans don't say that, given that the actual show was on NBC.
In Vancouver in the 1990s, if you wanted to buy a six-pack of beer at 10pm after the government-run liquor store closed, you would walk into a local pub and ask the bartender if they did "off-sales". If yes, they would sell you a cold six-pack for a very small markup.
Also, in Ontario in the 1990s, one-eighth of an ounce of weed was called a "half-quarter", ha ha.
dghughes · 1d ago
> Renoviction
That's very common word these days at least here in PEI. Kicking people out to "renovate".
It basically means renovate as in sweep the floor and paint a small patch on the wall, done. All so they can kick out the tenant and up the rent 1,000%.
whycome · 7h ago
It's interesting because it's a term that emerged due to a legal allowance (renovation+eviction: allowance to evict a tenant when major renovations to a building have to be done).
What other legal-derived portmanteaus are there?
There's something human and clever and beautiful in the smart portmanteau in that it just communicates an idea so well.
goodcanadian · 1d ago
I've never in my life heard "off-sale" . . .
Off-sale has long been used in Alberta. I have a memory of asking my parents what it meant when I was a kid (and I am in my 40s, now).
j_not_j · 1d ago
"off-sale" at a licensed premises means sale for off-premise consumption.
In BC.
kps · 1d ago
Maybe from UK ‘off-license’?
goodcanadian · 1d ago
Similar concept, I suppose. When I was young, alcohol for consumption at home was generally only available for purchase in government run liquor stores. (This is still the case in some provinces, but no longer true in Alberta.) However, a few licensed premises (bars and restaurants) were permitted to do off-sales and sell alcohol that you were allowed to take with you off the premises.
marctrem · 1d ago
In Quebec French we use “toute garnie” to refer to a pizza with red sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, green peppers and pepperonis.
BunsanSpace · 1d ago
Which is funny because that translates to "fully garnished" not "all dressed". Tabarnac
cwillu · 1d ago
IMO that's a mistranslation; “stuffed with everything” would be more accurate.
chongli · 1d ago
Here in Ontario English we call that pizza deluxe!
nucleardog · 1d ago
Depends where in Ontario!
I'm in Ontario but in a heavily French area (i.e., East of Ottawa) and "toute garni / all dressed" is common. You'll find it places like Ottawa as well given the proximity to Quebec and French population.
fracus · 1d ago
That is what OP said. "All dressed" is a direct translation from French.
olalonde · 1d ago
Yes, they both refer to the same pizza. Many francophones actually say "une pizza all dress" - it refers to that specific combination of toppings though, not literally every available topping.
lynguist · 1d ago
Do you call “tomato sauce” “red sauce”?
ShroudedNight · 1d ago
I can't speak authoritatively for the OP, but yes, I would expect red sauce to be tomato-based. Compare with "sauce brune" [brown sauce ~= gravy] which is what gets put on poutine.
geophile · 1d ago
"Can confirm".
In the mid 70s, I would order a small pizza, all dressed from McGill Pizza, when feeling peckish. $1.10, delivered to your door in no time at all.
cwillu · 1d ago
There's a significant (though not exactly large) french-speaking population in Saskatchewan.
I live a couple blocks from a large french-only school.
pjot · 1d ago
A “fully dressed” poboy in New Orleans is one with all the fixing’s
nucleardog · 1d ago
Huh, that makes sense given "all dressed" came from French and New Orleans' French history.
I'm not sure why we both ended up with "dressed" given the French is literally "all garnishes / toppings" or "wholly garnished / topped". I'm sure some linguist could probably do a dissertation on this or something. And hopefully also cover how Saskatchewan ended up with using "all dressed" because I'm really curious about that outlier.
zahlman · 1d ago
> I'm not sure why we both ended up with "dressed" given the French is literally "all garnishes / toppings" or "wholly garnished / topped".
> 1. To decorate with ornaments; to adorn; to embellish.
(Bonus: "garnish" is etymologically related to "warn". There are many such other pairs in English, e.g. "guarantee" / "warranty" and "guard" / "ward". (As I understand it: the Gauls could pronounce the "g", but the Franks couldn't.)
embedded_hiker · 1d ago
There are several parking structures called "parkades" in Salem Oregon.
joshdavham · 1d ago
I wish they would've explained the term "soaker" a bit better as it's such a Canadian thing.
Basically, when the snow starts to melt in the spring, you'll sometimes accidentally step on some thin ice that leads directly to a puddle underneath and soak your boot. It sucks! Also, we would often call these "booters" in Manitoba, where I'm from.
chongli · 1d ago
Wow! I remember getting soakers as a kid! I had no idea it was a Canadianism!
throwaway290 · 1d ago
When and why/how did you stop getting soakers? Asking for a friend
chongli · 1d ago
I no longer walk to school! When I walk into a store or into work I always watch where I step, regardless of the season or the weather. I’m especially cautious walking around my back yard after a rain!
throwaway290 · 1d ago
Yes I guess once you learn to tell the signs of thin ice, soakers are rare... but now in tropics I get soakers being adult! Sometimes deep water is hard to notice or there is no route around a puddle. Maybe these are not really soakers (no ice involved) but I like the word
tempest_ · 1d ago
Just go hiking in the spring.
Got a soaker in April when I stepped on some snow that has hiding a deep puddle on a trail.
cik · 1d ago
Yup, they'll forever be booters to me to. Go Bison?
joshdavham · 1d ago
And go Jets!
zahlman · 1d ago
I can relate to the experience, but never even thought of having a word for it...
throaway955 · 1d ago
got a booter eh bud?
SecretDreams · 1d ago
In Southern Ontario, it feels like it's soakers all winter long!
votick · 1d ago
first time i’ve found a fellow manitoban on HN greetings !
michaelmior · 1d ago
As a Canadian who married an American and now lived in the US, I was surprised how many things I say are Canadianisms without me having realized. There have been a lot of (minor) miscommunications because I didn't realize I was saying something only Canadians understand. Like when I told her that my parents' hydro had been out all day.
mykowebhn · 1d ago
I initially worked in Canada where it wouldn't be uncommon to go out for a work lunch and order a beer.
When I got a new job in the US, my boss took me and several coworkers to a restaurant for lunch as a way to welcome me. When the waitress asked what I wanted to drink I asked for a beer. I then heard one of my coworkers who was sitting next to me ask me incredulously, "What are you doing?" I responded that I was ordering a beer. He said that I could get fired for that. That's when I realized that for a country that seemed so similar to Canada on the surface it was quite different below that surface.
slumberlust · 1d ago
Many companies and cultures in the US are fine with a drink or two at lunch. What industry was this company in?
mykowebhn · 1d ago
Good to know. This was in suburban Chicago, Naperville, IL to be exact, during the 90s. The industry was Telecomm. Maybe it was a more conservative area compared with the Bay Area or Boston.
parpfish · 1d ago
It’s usually best if the manager/more senior employees order first and sets the tone for “is this a beer friendly lunch”. Definitely don’t make the new guy order first and guess
red-iron-pine · 1d ago
had plenty of drinking lunches w/ US companies. the current (Canadian) company I'm at is quite strict about drinking -- would likely be fireable.
the Aussies would have been disappointed if I only had one...
astura · 1d ago
It's common to order a beer at work lunch in the US too.
Though I have worked at places if the company was paying for the lunch they won't pay for alcohol. In those cases we've always asked for the beers to be on a separate check so the expense report is easier.
dghughes · 1d ago
The term Hydro for electrical power (power lines) is not used in PEI the older generation would call it the "light bill" younger people now may call it the "power bill". If it was out we'd just say the power is out.
BunsanSpace · 1d ago
Hydro is just for QC, ON and BC where the electrical companies have "hydro" in their name.
Other parts of the country just call it power/electrical. But in NS my grand parents would also call it a "light bill".
throaway955 · 1d ago
Hydro is from Canadian provinces that use mostly hydro power
Forricide · 1d ago
I always assumed we just called it hydro in BC because so much of the power comes from hydroelectric, but then I moved and it seems we call it hydro everywhere no master source..?
retrac · 1d ago
Hydroelectric was historically even more dominant in Canada than today. In places that aren't majority hydro now, they were in the past, like in Ontario and Alberta.
The name of the utility companies in most provinces was probably an influence. Until 1999 in Ontario it was the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission, shortened normally to Ontario Hydro. Manitoba Hydro. Hydro Quebec. I think in Toronto they still stamp manhole covers with THES (Toronto Hydro-Electric System).
ShroudedNight · 1d ago
In Ontario, we still have Hydro One as a (the?) primary distributor of electricity outside urban environments.
If I remember correctly, Hydro One also serves some parts of the Ottawa area, and their delivery rates were different enough from Hydro Ottawa that it was often a material consideration for where one chose to buy one's house.
standeven · 1d ago
I think it’s primarily BC and Ontario. And maybe a French version in Quebec.
umanwizard · 1d ago
Hydro-Québec is the name of the power company there so I’m guessing it is.
skipants · 1d ago
I think it's pretty common in Western Canada. Definitely the norm in Manitoba.
djkivi · 1d ago
Not common in Alberta but people probably will know what you mean.
Forricide · 1d ago
That would definitely make the most sense. It’s also hydro in Quebec (hydro-Québec).
dledesma · 1d ago
I've had to explain to an Albertan friend that hydro meant power, they mostly use coal out there from what I understand.
osigurdson · 1d ago
Alberta doesn't use any coal actually.
zahlman · 1d ago
They have only recently finished phasing out coal, such that it appears in last year's statistics. And it's still mostly natural gas, i.e. a fossil fuel.
> Like when I told her that my parents' hydro had been out all day.
When I immigrated to Canada (Ontario) a decade ago, the term hydro was the most confusing to me. I assumed it meant water supply or plumbing, but it was always in the wrong context. I imagined the disaster of hooking up the plumbing to the electrical service! Now it’s completely natural to call it “hydro” but confusing at first.
nsavage · 1d ago
I travel to the UK a lot and am usually pretty careful with my Canadianisms, but during my last trip I accidentally asked a server for both a pop and a serviette at the same time, leading to a blank stare.
astura · 1d ago
Pop isn't a Canadianisms, is common in a lot of the US too.
do people look at you puzzled when you say "keener"?
sheepscreek · 1d ago
Washroom vs. bathroom: I’ve always found it strange to call a room a “bathroom” if it doesn’t have a shower or tub. On the other hand, most single-family homes in Canada have a “powder room” where people can wash their face and hands. Although these facilities serve similar purposes, the former is used for public spaces, while the latter is found inside homes.
trashchomper · 1d ago
As an Australian I always find it funny going places and having to remember which dance-around word everyone uses for "toilet". Washroom, restroom, bathroom, there's so many!
bcoates · 1d ago
'Toilet' itself is a euphemism, an archaic term for dressing/washing room and/or the act of washing up
umanwizard · 1d ago
“Toilette” is still used that way in normal everyday French. “Je fais ma toilette” - I’m washing up/getting ready/getting dressed/doing my morning hygiene routine/etc.
mitthrowaway2 · 1d ago
It was pretty surprising to be reading some old books on Project Gutenberg and seeing the word "toilet" being used meaning "outfit" or "wardrobe".
Biganon · 1d ago
Let's call it the poop room
ajdude · 1d ago
Don't forget water closet!
xeonmc · 1d ago
Not to be confused with Tungsten Carbide, a ceramic used for abrasives and ballpoint pen tips.
gerdesj · 1d ago
Toilet, bog or lav in the UK are some options.
The easy to remember terms and will work nearly anywhere without giving offence are: "loo" in a residential property or "gents/ladies" for a non-residential property.
xeonmc · 1d ago
and also the lavatory
gerdesj · 1d ago
That'll be the lav.
pards · 1d ago
other notables include the loo, the can, the john, and of course the dunny
ChoGGi · 1d ago
The pisser
kurtis_reed · 1d ago
Toilet is the object, not the room it's in
KayEss · 1d ago
Only in some parts of the world. In many it's the room and the object
xattt · 1d ago
Soviet apartments had a separate rooms for the toilet and the area with a bath/shower/sink. The area behind the toilet was usually a hinged wall that could be opened to reveal the entry point for utilities.
I assume toilet hands were an unspoken issue, because there was no possible way to traverse from the toilet room to the washroom without touching anything.
For a complete tangent, I’ll mention that Soviet toilets had a “poop shelf” so that people could eyeball their stool to gauge their health. One flaw of this design is that there was no odour suppression offered by toilets that immediately immerse stool in water.
shawn_w · 1d ago
I believe German toilets have the same shelf.
TonyTrapp · 1d ago
Mostly in older buildings. I don't think you see it as often in more modern bathrooms anymore.
Restroom has always puzzled me. Seems like it should be an alternate name for a bedroom instead.
Forricide · 1d ago
This one (among others) does really fascinate me. Maybe it’s due to spending a lot of time around diverse groups of people but I’ve never really seen a huge distinction between these words. Washroom, bathroom, toilet, I and everyone I know pretty much would use interchangeably? Or at least wouldn’t blink at someone else using them.
Restroom, and a variety of others, might be slightly more usage specific but still… wouldn’t be unexpected or weird, I’d say?
zahlman · 1d ago
> most single-family homes in Canada have a “powder room” where people can wash their face and hands.
I think only people of a very specific upbringing ever call it that here. Certainly nobody in my circles would.
throaway955 · 1d ago
yeah can't say I know of anyone with a powder room
koakuma-chan · 1d ago
I use washroom and bathroom interchangeably.
throaway955 · 1d ago
its been said that Canada is still mentally stuck in the Victorian age somewhat
SecretDreams · 1d ago
Animal shithouse
teqsun · 1d ago
This list somehow doesn't have "converter" (to refer to a television remote), which was the first word to unexpectedly baffle my American coworkers the first time I said it, to my own surprise.
Rendello · 1d ago
I'm from Northern Ontario and never heard that one, but I was also surprised by a missing term: "transport". In my neck of the woods, that's how we refer to a semi-truck / 18-wheeler.
tempest_ · 1d ago
Converter was definitely heard when I was growing up and I would know what you were talking about 100%
Now a days I am probably more likely to say "Clicker" unless otherwise prompted.
mhurron · 1d ago
I think that's actually going to be more of an age thing as well. The converter wasn't just the remote, but the little box, separate from the TV, needed to convert signals for an older TV.
Basically, the 'cable box' or the 'satalite box.'
But ya, 45 years old, grew up in Toronto and Southern Alberta and it was a converter, until it wasn't.
eigenspace · 1d ago
Where are you from? I'm from BC and I've never heard that one either.
cluoma · 1d ago
I grew up in BC as well and never heard it. My parents were from Ontario and always called it the flipper. Because it flips channels I guess. Felt like every household had a different name for it though.
werdnapk · 1d ago
I've never heard that one... what part of the country is that from?
osigurdson · 21h ago
What is it converting?
throaway955 · 1d ago
never heard of that, but always delighted my friends when id ask for the channel changer
joshdavham · 1d ago
Probably one of my favorite commonly-used Canadian slang is "to chirp someone". It's a term that's frequently used in hockey circles, but more generally means to make fun of someone in a banter-y kind of way.
Apparently it's a direct translation from French and is pretty exclusive to Quebec English and the Easternmost part of Ontario (which is heavily French).
And Saskatchewan. Which the site notes is "a bit of a mystery".
Also found "parkade" interesting--apparently it's still much more heavily used in Western Canada, and they attribute that to it having been "seeded" by some Hudson's Bay advertisements run at their original 6 locations all in Western Canada.
Some other words/terms that surprised me: renoviction, gong show, kerfuffle, off-sale, stagette
The goalie trinity right there
https://youtu.be/eIoTpkM5N64?si=FnGploZrLZ1XRVXO&utm_source=...
There's no mystery. This is rubbish research. In parts of Manitoba we also use all-dressed for the same purpose (and of course chips). The unifying factor is French culture. The Riel Rebellion helped bring tremendous franocphones, and French culture out west. There are areas like St. Boniface in Winnipeg where s some people speak only French. The Metis are in both Manitoba and Quebec...
I appreciate the DHCP-3 is not a monolithic work, but to have both authorship and editorial oversight of a corpus that presents itself as a rigorous treatise of Canadianisms demonstrate either broad ignorance of, or reckless disregard for a significant portion of our heritage is just baffling to me. What's the point if one is not going to be ruthlessly thorough?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabrielle_Roy
What on Earth. Wikipedia tells me:
> An all-dressed chip called The Whole Shabang is produced by American prison supplier Keefe Group. It became available to the general public in 2016.[4] Frito-Lay began selling all-dressed Ruffles potato chips in the United States that same year.[5]
I had assumed the entire time that everyone uses this term for potato chips (and that everyone has the flavour) and that the Quebecois were just being weird by also applying it to pizza.
--
"Renoviction" is a very recent neologism that's mainly used in the specific major cities where it's an issue (because of the housing market).
"Gong show" I think is relatively old-fashioned (as in Gen X) by comparison. I'm actually surprised Americans don't say that, given that the actual show was on NBC.
I can easily find "kerfuffle" in supposedly American online dictionaries so I think their claim is rather dubious. On the flip side, I've never in my life heard "off-sale"; and in Ontario it's only quite recently (https://www.ontario.ca/document/alcohol-master-framework-agr... https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1003988/ontario-consumers...) that you can even legally purchase beer and wine at a grocery store.
Also, in Ontario in the 1990s, one-eighth of an ounce of weed was called a "half-quarter", ha ha.
That's very common word these days at least here in PEI. Kicking people out to "renovate".
It basically means renovate as in sweep the floor and paint a small patch on the wall, done. All so they can kick out the tenant and up the rent 1,000%.
What other legal-derived portmanteaus are there?
There's something human and clever and beautiful in the smart portmanteau in that it just communicates an idea so well.
Off-sale has long been used in Alberta. I have a memory of asking my parents what it meant when I was a kid (and I am in my 40s, now).
In BC.
I'm in Ontario but in a heavily French area (i.e., East of Ottawa) and "toute garni / all dressed" is common. You'll find it places like Ottawa as well given the proximity to Quebec and French population.
In the mid 70s, I would order a small pizza, all dressed from McGill Pizza, when feeling peckish. $1.10, delivered to your door in no time at all.
I live a couple blocks from a large french-only school.
I'm not sure why we both ended up with "dressed" given the French is literally "all garnishes / toppings" or "wholly garnished / topped". I'm sure some linguist could probably do a dissertation on this or something. And hopefully also cover how Saskatchewan ended up with using "all dressed" because I'm really curious about that outlier.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dress
> 4. (also figuratively) To adorn or ornament (something). [from 15th c.]
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/garnish
> 1. To decorate with ornaments; to adorn; to embellish.
(Bonus: "garnish" is etymologically related to "warn". There are many such other pairs in English, e.g. "guarantee" / "warranty" and "guard" / "ward". (As I understand it: the Gauls could pronounce the "g", but the Franks couldn't.)
Basically, when the snow starts to melt in the spring, you'll sometimes accidentally step on some thin ice that leads directly to a puddle underneath and soak your boot. It sucks! Also, we would often call these "booters" in Manitoba, where I'm from.
Got a soaker in April when I stepped on some snow that has hiding a deep puddle on a trail.
When I got a new job in the US, my boss took me and several coworkers to a restaurant for lunch as a way to welcome me. When the waitress asked what I wanted to drink I asked for a beer. I then heard one of my coworkers who was sitting next to me ask me incredulously, "What are you doing?" I responded that I was ordering a beer. He said that I could get fired for that. That's when I realized that for a country that seemed so similar to Canada on the surface it was quite different below that surface.
the Aussies would have been disappointed if I only had one...
Though I have worked at places if the company was paying for the lunch they won't pay for alcohol. In those cases we've always asked for the beers to be on a separate check so the expense report is easier.
Other parts of the country just call it power/electrical. But in NS my grand parents would also call it a "light bill".
The name of the utility companies in most provinces was probably an influence. Until 1999 in Ontario it was the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission, shortened normally to Ontario Hydro. Manitoba Hydro. Hydro Quebec. I think in Toronto they still stamp manhole covers with THES (Toronto Hydro-Electric System).
If I remember correctly, Hydro One also serves some parts of the Ottawa area, and their delivery rates were different enough from Hydro Ottawa that it was often a material consideration for where one chose to buy one's house.
https://www.aeso.ca/aeso/understanding-electricity-in-albert...
When I immigrated to Canada (Ontario) a decade ago, the term hydro was the most confusing to me. I assumed it meant water supply or plumbing, but it was always in the wrong context. I imagined the disaster of hooking up the plumbing to the electrical service! Now it’s completely natural to call it “hydro” but confusing at first.
https://www.businessinsider.com/soda-pop-coke-map-2018-10
The easy to remember terms and will work nearly anywhere without giving offence are: "loo" in a residential property or "gents/ladies" for a non-residential property.
I assume toilet hands were an unspoken issue, because there was no possible way to traverse from the toilet room to the washroom without touching anything.
For a complete tangent, I’ll mention that Soviet toilets had a “poop shelf” so that people could eyeball their stool to gauge their health. One flaw of this design is that there was no odour suppression offered by toilets that immediately immerse stool in water.
Still better than a Poseidon kiss.
I think their style is an import from Germany in the first place, but it stuck.
Meaning 1a is the object, 1b is the room. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/toilet
Restroom, and a variety of others, might be slightly more usage specific but still… wouldn’t be unexpected or weird, I’d say?
I think only people of a very specific upbringing ever call it that here. Certainly nobody in my circles would.
Now a days I am probably more likely to say "Clicker" unless otherwise prompted.
Basically, the 'cable box' or the 'satalite box.'
But ya, 45 years old, grew up in Toronto and Southern Alberta and it was a converter, until it wasn't.