a possibly minority position

Tue Apr 1 05:07:06 UTC 2008

Will and Ajda, You may be right, even Brahms attributes it to Max Reger:
"I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your review
before me. It shall soon be behind me." My informant is English and told
me the quote is from somewhere in Boswell's Life of Johnson. Sometimes
it's hard to know who said what. "The cosmos is the smallest hole a man
can hide his head in." That could sound like Oscar Wilde, but belongs to
G.K. Chesterton. Perhaps someone may know an equivalent expression in
Russian for "the smallest room in the house". Anyone?

Will --- I'm surprised you didn't know "little girls' room". There is an
analogous "little boys' room". That's probably not British English
either.
Out here in the wilds of California (pronounced "Caleefornya" by our
head of state), restaurants often have "Caballeros" posted on the
loo-for-men door. Did someone mention WC? And then there's American
street slang: "head," as in the question: "'ey dude, where's the head
at?"

In Russian, I think it's mainly "tualet".

Jerry Katsell  

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of William Ryan
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 5:42 PM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] a possibly minority position

It doesn't sound at all like Johnson to me. A quick look at Google shows

attributions to several anons, Max Reger, Winston Churchill, Noel 
Coward, George Bernard Shaw, G. K. Chesterton and Voltaire, none with a 
verifiable reference. One Reger citation does give the recipient and 
date (Rudolph Louis, 1906) - but I would have been more convinced if it 
had been quoted in German. Sounds like one of those general purpose 
witticisms.
Will Ryan

Ajda Kljun wrote:
> Wasn't it the German musician Max Reger who said that? See
>
http://books.google.si/books?id=wgoOxgWl6roC&pg=PA744&lpg=PA744&dq=%22sm
allest+room%22+reger&source=web&ots=wQeFp1K4gT&sig=4ulGjqG_7T2pNAvArXSRE
ZGVsuc&hl=sl#PPA744,M1.
>
>
> Regards, Ajda.
>
> 2008/3/31, Jerry Katsell <jerry3 at roadrunner.com>:
>   
>> Dear John and Ryan and All,
>>
>> It seems that Dr. Samuel Johnson may have something to contribute to
>> toilet references, viz., "the smallest room in the house." As he
wrote
>> once upon a time to one of his critics:
>>
>>
>> "I'm reading your letter. I'm sitting in the smallest room in the
house.
>> It shall soon be behind me."
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Jerry Katsell
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
>> [mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Meredig, John
>> Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 6:24 AM
>> To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] a possibly minority position
>>
>> All this toilet talk reminds me of all the amusement I caused for my
>> German friends many years ago when I told them: Ich muss ins Klo. The
>> room vs. the fixture can indeed be an important distinction.
>>
>> John Meredig
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
>> [mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of William Ryan
>> Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 8:17 PM
>> To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] a possibly minority position
>>
>> In British English the toilet unit itself is called, in a hardware
>> catalogue, a 'toilet pan' (hence the expression 'down the pan' = gone
to
>> waste, ruined) or sometimes 'toilet pedestal', or just 'toilet', and
>> this is indeed the Russian 'unitaz' (from the British brand name
Unitas,
>> c. 1870 - I have seen several with this trade mark in older Russian
>> houses). But 'toilet' is vague and can also be a room or whole
edifice,
>> e.g. a public toilet.
>>
>> British and American euphemisms in this area differ a good deal and
can
>> be a source of embarrassing international misunderstanding. I
remember,
>> as a young student still unfamiliar with US English, being accosted
by
>> an elderly American lady in the Bodleian Library in Oxford who asked
me
>> if I could direct her to 'the little girl's room' (I am not sure
where
>> the apostrophe goes). I was genuinely puzzled by this and unable to
help
>> her.
>>
>> Will Ryan
>>
>>
>> Paul B. Gallagher wrote:
>>     
>>> Alina Israeli wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Tualet in Russian was borrowed from French and it means 1. a
garment,
>>>>         
>>>> usually a fancy ensemble; 2. taking care of one's appearance
>>>> (zanimat'sja svoim tualetom); 3. a table with a mirror; 4. (finally
>>>> the euphemistic) bathroom.
>>>>
>>>> The English toilet would be translated as unitaz.
>>>>         
>>> When we need to disambiguate, an унитаз is called a "commode." This
>>> word can only refer to the fixture, never to the room. "Toilet" is
>>> ambiguous, at least in American English. It can even be a verb (!).
>>>
>>>       
>>
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