Loo, John, Head or Can? A Field Guide to Bathroom Words
Restroom, washroom, loo, john, head, latrine, WC. Here's what each word really means, where it probably came from, and the bathroom vocabulary you'll only find on Sportopotty.
In this post
Your kid's teammate from Ontario asks for the washroom. The coach who was in the Navy heads to the head. Grandma wants the powder room. And the tournament director just pointed everyone to the "comfort station," which turns out to be a portable toilet behind the backstop.
English has a ridiculous number of words for the bathroom. Here's your field guide to bathroom slang terms and what they really mean.
The everyday words
Bathroom. The standard American word, even when there's no bath anywhere near it. Americans use it for the room in a house and for the stalls at a ballfield alike.
Restroom. The polite public version, common on signs across the U.S. It suggests a place to rest, which, at a 7 a.m. tournament, is optimistic.
Toilet. This one has a great backstory. Merriam-Webster explains that it comes from the French toilette, a small piece of cloth draped over the shoulders while doing your hair. Over time the word drifted from the cloth, to grooming, to the room where you groomed, to the fixture itself.
Lavatory. From the Latin for washing. You'll see it on airplanes.
Washroom. The go-to in Canada. If your travel team crosses the border for a hockey or lacrosse tournament, this is the word you'll hear.
WC. Short for water closet, common across Europe.
The bathroom slang terms
Loo. The classic British word, and nobody knows for sure where it came from. A popular story says it comes from gardyloo, a warning shouted before tossing a chamber pot out the window. Word experts at Grammarphobia and the dictionaries say that story doesn't hold up, and the origin is officially unknown.
John. Also uncertain. Some credit Sir John Harington, who designed a flushing toilet for Queen Elizabeth I in the 1590s. Others think "john" grew out of the older slang word "jakes." Either way, it stuck.
Head. Nautical. On old sailing ships, the toilets were at the bow, or head, of the ship, where the waves would wash things clean. Sailors brought the word home.
Can. American slang, likely from the plain metal containers used before modern plumbing.
Latrine. The military and summer camp word for a basic, shared toilet, often outdoors.
Privy and outhouse. A small separate building with a pit toilet. Some very rural fields still have one.
Porta-potty, porta-john, honey bucket. All names for the portable toilet. We wrote a whole post on the surprising history of the porta-potty.
Spend a penny. A British phrase for going to the toilet, from the 1851 public restrooms you can read about in our history of public restrooms.
The Sportopotty words
Every community develops its own language. Here's ours.
- 💩 Rating: Our 0 to 5 scale. 0 is the cleanest. 5 is the dirtiest. Yes, it's backwards on purpose. Fewer 💩 is better, just like in real life. Here's the full explanation of the scale.
- TP Index: Is there toilet paper, and how much? The single most important stat in youth sports.
- Code Red: The emergency level. When a bathroom is so bad that families should plan around it.
- Pin Forward: A note left for the next family, like "use the restroom by the concession stand, not the one by Field 3."
- Still accurate?: Our freshness check. Parents confirm a rating is current so you're not trusting a report from two seasons ago.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the bathroom called the john? The origin isn't certain. Popular theories link it to Sir John Harington, who designed an early flushing toilet in the 1590s, or to the older slang word "jakes."
Why do the British call it the loo? Nobody knows for sure. The "gardyloo" story is popular but dictionaries list the origin as unknown.
What's the difference between a restroom and a bathroom? In the U.S., "restroom" usually means a public facility and "bathroom" can mean either a home or public one. In practice, most people use them interchangeably.
Whatever you call it
Loo, john, head or comfort station, the question at the field is always the same: is it clean, is it open, and is there paper? Look it up on the Sportopotty map before you go, and add your own rating when you get there.
