men's room

English

A c. 1942 US poster discouraging lounging in the men's room at work.

A men's room at Lassen Volcanic National Park (c. 1933) with urinal, toilet stalls, and sinks.

A Dutch 'men's room' (herenkamer).

Etymology

Originally a clipped form of gentlemen's room, originally a separate waiting room for men in public buildings such as railway stations but by the appearance of men's room also used as a euphemism for men's lavatories.

Noun

men's room (plural men's rooms)

1. A lavatory intended for use by men, often including urinals in addition to toilets.
   • 1929, Daniel Nathan as "Ellery Queen", The Roman Hat Mystery, Ch. iii, p. 31:

     Search the lounge downstairs. The men's room, the ladies' room.

2. Other rooms intended for use by men, as waiting rooms, dressing rooms, locker rooms, etc.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:bathroom

Coordinate terms

• women's room, ladies' room

Derived terms

• men's

Translations

lavatory intended for men — see also toilet

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 男廁 / 男厕 (naam⁴ ci³), 男界 (naam⁴ gaai³)

  Mandarin: 男廁 / 男厕 (zh) (náncè)

• Finnish: miestenhuone (fi)
• French: toilettes pour hommes f pl
• German: Herrentoilette m
• Hungarian: férfivécé, férfi-WC, (higher register) férfimosdó
• Romanian: toaletă pentru bărbați f
• Russian: мужска́я убо́рная (mužskája ubórnaja)
• Swedish: herrtoalett (sv) c, herrarnas (sv)
• Turkish: erkekler tuvaleti

other rooms intended for men

• Dutch: herenkamer

References

• "man, n.¹ (and int.)" in the Oxford English Dictionary (2000), Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Further reading

• men's room on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• monomers