Closets and Wardrobes and toilets and vests and things....

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> Potioncat:
> > And while we're on kitchens. What is an Aga?
> > 
> > Geoff (earlier):
> > A large stove for heating and producing hot water with side ovens
> for baking. They are usually solid fuel, coal or wood although there
> are oil-fired installations nowadays.
> 
> Carol:
> No naural gas or electric heating, then?

Geoff:
It is essentially designed as a solid fuel stove; most, as I said 
would be coal or wood-burning. Like Hoover or Thermos flasks, 
the proprietary name Aga has become a generic name for this 
type of equipment. We took out an old Rayburn - which is a similar 
British designed unit when we came to our present house because
 it was clapped out. (Agas are originally from Sweden although 
they are very popular in the UK, especially in out of town places.)

> Geoff (earlier):
> In UK speak, a vest is an item of underwear between the shirt and the
> body – if you wear one. (I haven't for several years). 
> > 
> > Sometimes also called a singlet if it's the sleeveless type such as
>  runners wear.
> 
> Carol:
> "Singlet" might do, though it's also used to refer to the one-piece
> garment that wrestlers wear. I think that "singlet" for a men's
> sleeveless shirt might suggest something a bit looser and more like an
> athletic jersey than a so-called wifebeater. I did, BTW, see the term
> "tank" used to refer to such tops. Don't young Englishmen wear such
> things as outer garments? If so, what do they call them? 
 
Geoff:
I'm sorry, I don't quite follow your drift in the last sentence. 

> Geoff (earlier):
> > Interestingly, this word ["lavatory'] has dropped out of UK English
> recently. You rarely hear it used in conversation. And in public,
> where you used to look for the sign "Public Lavatories" – or the more
> delicate "Public Conveniences" – now you look for plain and simple
> "Toilets".
> 
> Carol:
> Oh, those pragmatic brits. I guess it's an indication that washing
> your hands in a lavatory (sink) is only incidental to the primary
> purpose of that room. But whether you call it a lavatory or a toilet,
> it appears that the same term is used for the room and the wash basin
> or "porcelain fixture," as someone delicately called it, in British
> English. 

Geoff: I wouldn't agree with you on that. I think the fact that the 
origin of the word lavatory is related to washing is lost on most 
people. Lavatory or toilet or loo refers both to the room /and/ the 
equipment.

Carol:
> But that still doesn't answer my original question,
> which is how the room that Moaning Myrtle lives in, as opposed to the
> toilet that she dives into to get to the U-bend (or S-bend, in HBP),
> is called. the U.S. edition refers to it (inaccurately) as "Moaning
> Myrtle's bathroom." What term is used in the UK edition?

Geoff:
The British editions also talk about Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. In the 
films, this  is portrayed as  I would expect a communal (women's) 
toilet to appear with a row of WCs and handbasins.

I'm not familiar with the layout in a place such as a public school 
where there might indeed also be a number of individual bathrooms 
(UK bathrooms <g>) as well.