restroom

Etymology

It is a compound from English rest + room.^[2][3][4] It is also written “rest room” and “rest-room”.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A room, usually in a public building or workplace, set aside for rest and relaxation: before 1856, in a piece by S. Brown printed in the North British Review in 1857.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1887.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Such rest rooms often had, or were required to have, toilet rooms next to them, and by the 1930s the word had become a euphemism for a lavatory.^[3] Merriam-Webster dates the toilet sense to 1899.^[4] It is now chiefly American; the original sense is rare.^[2][4] In American regional speech it was also used of an indoor toilet in a house, or of an outhouse, and the Dictionary of American Regional English recorded it in the 1950s and 1960s in most areas except the Northeast, most often in the South Midland.^[5] In railroad slang it was a name for the caboose.^[6]

Timeline

• before 1856 – a room for rest and relaxation.^[2]
• 1887 – Etymonline's first date for a room set aside for rest.^[3]
• 1899 – a room with public toilets.^[4]
• 1930s – established as a euphemism for a lavatory.^[3]
• 1950 – an indoor toilet in a house, in a Wisconsin survey.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (US) A room or set of rooms in a public place with toilets and washbasins; a public lavatory: She asked the usher where the restroom was.^[4][7][2]
2. (rare) A room in a workplace or public building set aside for rest.^[2][1]
3. (US, regional) An indoor toilet in a house, or an outhouse.^[5]

Related words

• rest
• room

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
6. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin