a question to all europeans or people who can answer this

a closet is a small room .
so a watercloset is a small room where you go to make your water.

I say ´take a leak´quite a lot. But I have heard ´take the mickey´some times too.

Spending a penny is the most elegant euphamism for those bodily functions! In Arabic there is "relieve yourself" and it's not considered rude, although why you should mention it in the first place is probably only within your family, not in front of royalty or something!

Of course, Americans have "go to the bathroom", which can be a little non-specific. We all know what you mean, and yet, it's not the most pleasant of phrases.

Go to the bathroom is nice and neutral.

I thought North Americans went to the 'restroom', which I find a bit odd being British. We do a lot of things in bathrooms/toilets, but resting isn't one of them!

I think in the old days that restrooms in fancy places had kind of a lounge sitting area in the front of them for people to rest, and if they needed to do their business their was a different section of the room for that. Some restrooms may still be like this, but when shopping malls and fast-food restaurants came around, the term was just applied across the board for any bathroom in a public facility, although I've never seen a bathroom in a shopping mall with a lounge area. Supposedly women's restrooms are more likely to have this than men's ones, though.

Ryan

In my opinion w.c refer as wash and clean.

"Restroom" and "Bathroom" are not impolite in my opinion. And actually, I think that "toilet" sounds more barbarious than what the Americans say. However, the British simply call it what it is, and the Americans give it a fancy "polite" word (well, two words).

Here in Australia, people say "I need to go to the toilet" in public since all public places have signs for "toilet" not "restroom". I've heard from friends that have visited the USA that it is considered impolite to refer to the "toilet", where it should be "I need to go to the bathroom". I think part of the reason why Aussies see the toilet as separate from the bathroom is likely due to the fact that many Australian houses, especially older houses, have separate toilet rooms outside the bathroom. For example, my house has two separate toilets outside the bathroom. Thus, it seems strange to me to refer to the bathroom when I need to go to the toilet.

Also, the toilet is commonly called the "loo", sometimes "dunny" or "lav" (short for lavatry).

Why dunny? Any idea where the word comes from? We don't use it in the UK.

strange names for something so simple

Hythloday, I found the following defenitions:

DUNNEE, DUNNY – "n. Australian. a toilet, especially an 'outhouse' or outside lavatory. The word was reintroduced to some British speakers via the Australianisms in the cartoon strip 'The Adventures of Barry McKenzie' in 'Private Eye' magazine in the late 1960s. In fact this term has existed for approximately 200 years in British English as 'dunnakin' (spelt in various ways, including 'dunnigan' in Ireland) and had become obsolete. The ultimate origin of these words is obscure but seems to be related to archaic dialect words for excrement such as 'danna,' or its colour (dun)." From "The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang" by Tony Thorne (Pantheon Books, New York, 1990).

dunny
noun 1. (originally) an outside toilet, found in unsewered areas, usually at some distance from the house it serves and consisting of a small shed furnished with a lavatory seat placed over a sanitary can, or pit. 2. a sanitary can or toilet bowl. 3. the toilet or bathroom.
From _The Macquarie Book of Slang_

[DUNEGAN. A privy. A water closet. (Captain Grose et al.,_Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue_, 1811)]
Right now there might be a Shinto under every bush, and me stuck out like a dunny in a desert. (T.A.G. Hungerford, _The Ridge and the River_, 1952)
The only place you can read in peace in this joint is on the dunny seat. (Dorothy Hewett, _Bobbing Uo_, 1959)
The weatherboard dunny for which the modish names of the period include such as Aunt Mary, Houses of Parliament, the Little House, Down-the-back, Lavvy and Shouse. (Hal Porter, _The Watcher on the Cast-Iron Balcony_, 1963)

So far, I've continued to say "go to the toilet" in the U.S. and I've never seen any appalled faces. If I have to be very formal, I would say "public convenience".

The euphemisms I use are: "relieve myself", "go on some business", "go on a visit", and "release something". It's just a habit of mine to use non-standard euphemisms like these.

In the U.S., most new houses have toilets and bathrooms combined together. In the U.K., most residences also have a combined toilet-bathroom because there just isn't enough space for a separate W.C. But I must say that most public toilets do not Therefore, I'm used to saying "toilet" or "public convenience" in public and "bathroom" at home.

I think that "bathroom" shouldn't be used to refer to a public toilet. After all, who would take a bath there? As for the word "restroom", I can understand why Americans use it, for there is a sitting room in most women's toilets in posh American department stores (don't ask me how I found out).

Cheers, Rugger. I found a reference to 'dunnekin' in an old Warwickshire dialect dictionary, but we certainly don't use it any more in the English Midlands.