"pee" goes standard

[Benjamin Barrett]

On Jan 14, 2013, at 7:11 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:

> On Jan 14, 2013, at 7:53 AM, Charles C Doyle wrote:
>
>> And "go to the bathroom" has, grotesquely, become all-but standard for 'defecate':  as in "He went to the bathroom in his pants."
>>
>> --Charlie
>
> As Jerry Morgan pointed out in a 1978 paper, the meaning shift had become complete the first time someone was able to say "Your dog went to the bathroom on my living room rug".
>
> LH

It's hard to say how I would react in real life to someone saying this, but I think peeing would qualify as going to the bathroom.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

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