Exposure to language --> "dish"

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sun Dec 15 01:14:26 UTC 2002


>The discussion of "dish" (which I've never heard either, but then in South
>Texas we lived in a different world) reminded me of a question my mother
>asked recently when she had to provide a "stool sample" to the doctor:
>"Why stool?" Because the toilet is like a sort of stool one sits on?

Essentially, yes, according to the OED:
STOOL
5a)  "a seat enclosing a chamber utensil; a commode; more explicitly
stool of ease. Also, a privy."
5b) "in phrases meaning 'the place of evacuation', now (without the)
the action of evacuating the bowels" (e.g. "straining at stool")
5c)  "the action of evacuating the bowels; an act of discharging fæces"
5d)  "a discharge of fæcal matter of a specified colour, consistency,
etc.; the matter discharged"

Larry



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