CR - Comfort room = toilet?

M

mutagenix

Senior Member
Japanese
Hi

Do any of you, native speakers of English, use comfort room to cover the meaning of restroom, lavatory, washroom, etc.? Some sources on the internet say that it is one of the synonyms, others point out that it's Philippine English. Could you corroborate or deny these, please?
 
    • I've never heard or used comfort room -- even after a long time in Asia. But I've only been to the Philippines once. :)
     
    For what it's worth here's a definition of 'comfort' from the OED:
    11.11 Comb., as comfort-killing, comfort-seeking adjs. comfort station U.S. Genteelism, a public lavatory.

    [1910 Aurora (Illinois) Daily Beacon 8 Sept. 6/1 A public comfort room‥would pay the city of Aurora a profit every year.] 1923 Glass (Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.) 167 (heading) Public comfort stations. 1931 T. Wilder Long Christmas Dinner 121 Ma, where is the next comfort-station.
    Source: Oxford English Dictionary
    ​
     
    Thomas1 said:
    For what it's worth here's a definition of 'comfort' from the OED:
    11.11 Comb., as comfort-killing, comfort-seeking adjs. comfort station U.S. Genteelism, a public lavatory.

    [1910 Aurora (Illinois) Daily Beacon 8 Sept. 6/1 A public comfort room‥would pay the city of Aurora a profit every year.] 1923 Glass (Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.) 167 (heading) Public comfort stations. 1931 T. Wilder Long Christmas Dinner 121 Ma, where is the next comfort-station.
    Source: Oxford English Dictionary
    ​
    Click to expand...


    Yes, I've seen this one as well. I wonder if it's ever used in real life.
     
    Well, from the dictionary entry it seems it was used about eighty years ago in the US, but other than that it's the thing of the past (see also Copyright's answer). I've just looked it up in the Corpus of Contemporary American English, which includes texts from the period between 1990 and 2012; there are two examples of "comfort room", none of which means a lavatory. A quick search on Google Books reveals that there are sources with the phrase "comfort room" used to mean "lavatory or bathroom/changing room(?)":

    Comfort Rooms A' comfort room is an important section of a THE building. One unit for the males and one for the females with a shower and dressing room for each unit is constructed. It is important that the users of the comfort room are taught ...
    http://books.google.pl/books?id=WCJ...edir_esc=y#v=onepage&q="comfort room"&f=false

    The outhouse or “comfort room” as they call it, was outside and consisted of a toilet bowl which could be flushed by pouring water into it. A large tub of water was kept nearby for this purpose and for washing oneself with the aid of a dipper.
    https://www.google.com/search?q="comfort room"&tbs=bks:1&lr=lang_en

    “The driver wants to eat something and go to the comfort room.”
    http://books.google.pl/books?id=shk...edir_esc=y#v=onepage&q="comfort room"&f=false
    ​
     
    Rover_KE said:
    In the UK (and the USA unless I'm very much mistaken) 'comfort room' is rarely, if ever, used...
    Click to expand...
    I can confirm that Rover_KE is not mistaken about the USA. I don't recall ever hearing this term. It would sound strange to me, even though I could probably figure out its meaning from context if I heard it.
     
    CR is definitely in common usage in the Philippines for a toilet, public or private. It's much like the use of WC in most of Europe, so u don't see or hear Comfort Room, much the same as Water Closet is a rarely heard term. I'm 76 and never heard the term CR until i visited the Philippines, where it must have been brought over by the U.S. military during the conquest and subsequent occupation of the Philippines after the Spanish relinquished it as their colony following their loss in the Spanish-American War.
     
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