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Etymology and origin of the English word loo

Pronunciation

loo1 card game

Confidence
Established
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1675 Wycherley, The Country-Wife
From
French lanturelu
Ultimate origin
French lanturelu

Etymology

The card game is a clipping of lanterloo,[2][3][4][5][6][7] which is from French lanturelu, also lanturlu,[2][4][7][8] perhaps by way of Dutch lanterlu.[9][10] The French word was at first a meaningless refrain of a popular song,[2][4][5][6] which Etymonline dates to the 1620s and Partridge to Richelieu's time;[4][8] Merriam-Webster gives it the sense "nonsense, twaddle".[7] According to Etymonline it was formed on turelure, an older word for a song chorus, apparently a jingling reduplication of loure (“bagpipe”), perhaps from Latin lura (“bag, purse”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A round card game played for stakes, in which a player who fails to take a trick pays into the pool: first recorded in 1675, in the epilogue to Wycherley's “The Country-Wife”.[2][7] The longer lanterloo is recorded from 1668.[2]

Semantic evolution

By 1680 loo also meant the fact of being made to pay into the pool and the sum paid, and the verb loo, to subject a player to this forfeit, appeared the same year in Cotton's “Compleat Gamester”.[2][7][3] From 1761 a loo was also a party playing the game,[2][3] and the phrase for the good of the loo, for the benefit of the company, was current in the late 18th century.[2] Johnson (1755) simply called it "a game at cards", quoting Addison and Pope.[11] The figurative verb, to defeat or thwart, survived in dialect.[2][3] In American slang of the early 19th century, loo meant to cheat or defraud, perhaps from the game.[12]

Timeline

  • 1675 – the card game.[2][7]
  • 1680 – the forfeit paid into the pool; verb, to make a player pay it.[2][7]
  • 1706 – verb, figurative, to defeat or thwart.[2][3]
  • 1761 – a party playing loo.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An old card game played for a pool, in which a player who fails to win a trick must pay into it.[9][7][3]
  2. The sum that such a player must pay into the pool.[9][2]

Verb

  1. To make a player pay into the pool at loo.[7][3][2]

loo2 lavatory

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1940 Nancy Mitford, Pigeon Pie

Etymology

The word for a lavatory is of unknown origin.[2][3][13][14] The OED suggests French lieux (“latrines”), recorded in this sense from 1640 and later short for lieux d'aisances, with the English form perhaps influenced by the pronunciation of the earlier borrowing lieu.[2] Ayto thinks this the likeliest source, and Etymonline and Merriam-Webster also mention this phrase, literally “places of ease”, perhaps picked up by British soldiers in France during the First World War.[15][4][7][9] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins finds a shortening of Waterloo the most plausible, from a trade name for iron cisterns in the early 20th century;[14][13][15] the OED notes that no such use of Waterloo has been traced.[2] The OED, Ayto and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins reject gardyloo, the warning shout of old Edinburgh, as too far removed in time,[2][15][14] and the OED also doubts bourdaloue (“a chamber pot”).[2][12] Partridge preferred French l'eau (“the water”),[8] and Ayto mentions louvre, for the slatted screens round a makeshift lavatory.[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A lavatory: first recorded in 1940, in Nancy Mitford's novel “Pigeon Pie”.[2][12][14][7] Etymonline and Ayto see a pun on it already in Joyce's “Ulysses” (1922), which plays on Waterloo and watercloset.[4][15]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that there is no reliable evidence of the word before the 1920s,[15] although the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins thinks it may have been in use before the 20th century, and that the French lieux was used for a lavatory in the late 18th century;[14] the OED quotes a letter of 1782 that seems to use lieu for a privy in English.[2] The word is British and informal;[9] the Shorter Oxford labels it colloquial.[3] Green's Dictionary of Slang records it in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa as well as Britain, and shows the spelling lou in 1950.[12]

Timeline

  • 1922 – a possible pun in Joyce's “Ulysses”.[4][15]
  • 1940 – a lavatory.[2][7][12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly British, informal) A lavatory or toilet: Excuse me, I need the loo.[9][7][3]

Word family

  • loo paper
  • loo roll
  • portaloo
  • lanterloo
  • lieu
  • gardyloo
  • halloo

Usage notes

Several minor words are spelled loo.[2][3] A hunting cry to urge on dogs, short for halloo, is recorded from 1608 in Shakespeare's “King Lear”,[2][3] with a verb, to urge on by shouting, from 1667;[2][7] it survived in dialect from Yorkshire to Warwickshire.[16] A loo or loo mask was a half-mask worn by women in the 17th century, from French loup.[2][3] In Bihar and the Punjab the loo is a hot, dusty wind, a borrowing from Hindi recorded from 1888.[2][3] In American slang loo is also short for a police or fire lieutenant.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  9. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Loo.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/loo. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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