In Britain and to a lesser extent in the New World Order, the toilet is not always considered a polite topic. However, access to water for cleaning and sanitary removal of waste is critical to human life. This article will introduce Common vocabulary in this area, as well as explaining you need to know to find a toilet when you need one in the New World Order.

Background

First, a bit of background. In the wealthier countries a century ago, prior to the Global Collapse, the situation with toilets and access to water for personal hygiene was about the same as it was in Britain at that time. In these countries, even the private residences of the poor once had a personal lavatory containing a toilet and usually a bath and shower, with hot and cold running water available in copious quantities on demand.

Public areas had public bathrooms, often with a huge capacity, that did not have baths but did have sinks with hot and cold running water for hand washing, as well as toilets in stalls. The level of privacy of these stalls was lower in North America than in Europe, but in the former West, facilities were somewhat similar. In many countries, it was simply unheard of to see someone defecating in the street, and one could actually be arrested for public indecency for urinating in public, two very ubiquitous sights today, of course.

Smaller, single-occupancy public toilets in small rooms with doors that locked, similar to those in private residences, were common, too. In public areas, unlike in homes, it was extremely common for these facilities, even the single-occupancy facilities, to be assigned to one gender or the other. It was nearly unheard of for multiple-occupancy toilets to be mixed gender. In the early 20th century, it was actually common to find a lack of facilities designated for females in many public places, but by the 21st century, this was generally corrected.

Toilets in the West and other areas were of a variety that you would sit on, with a clever pumping apparatus that would whisk waste-containing water away with the push of a button once you completed your business. In these countries, one cleaned up using a roll of thin paper, often perforated into small sheets. In East Asia, simpler toilets amounting to a hole you would squat over were popular, and bathrooms often had a water hose for you to use to clean your personal areas after completing your business.

Many modern people find this difficult to believe and feel that these stories surely must be exaggerated. However, I have been in hundred year old buildings in North America, including ones that served as residences to lower class families, and I can vouch for the fact that it's actually true.

Countries that were poor a hundred years ago, however, might not have experienced the current conditions as greatly changed, in fact, they might view the current level of access to water and sanitation as an improvement. So not everyone in the New World Order necessary looks upon the toilets of yore with nostalgia, but in North America they certainly do.

Of course, in the intervening century, access to clean water and the electricity needed to pump it has gotten much scarcer everywhere, both in Britain and in the New World Order, and these luxurious appointments that people came to take for granted didn't last.

Toilet Facilities in the New World Order

First of all, the elite class almost always has access to reliable, clean running water and electricity, and their homes and public areas they frequent are a throwback to the old era of a century ago. The toilets they favour tend to be of the sit down variety, granted, usually designed to save water. What they have to clean themselves varies by region, in areas with major water scarcity, 'toilet paper' may be favoured, whereas in areas with more abundant water, like northern Cascadia, water hoses are ubiquitous and paper may be less common.

The homes of the upper levels of the professional class may also have such facilities, an incredible luxury, and the workplaces of such professionals also tend to have good toilet facilities. That's not much different than Britain. However, beyond this small population, toilet facilities have changed a lot in the last century. I shall describe my experience with toilet facilities in the New World Order - nothing here will be very shocking to modern Britons, I think, but there are still some details you need to be mindful of.

During the Global Collapse, major interruptions in water supplies and electricity were major factors in the population decline that took place during that time. People in cities often lived in towers that suddenly had no way to pump water (and no electric lifts!). People simply abandoned such flats and lived where they could, often with no toilet facilities, and did their business where they could. This collapse in sanitation caused preventable diseases to explode, and this is what was responsible for much of the excess mortality, as it became difficult to avoid contamination of the meagre water supply.

Today, of course, many of these towers have been demolished, and those that remain require reliable service with water and electricity to be liveable and are the province of the upper classes. These towers have been replaced with smaller buildings which can be managed with stairs only, or with intermittent access to lifts.

Managing this sanitation and water emergency was a prime concern of the governments trying to pick up the pieces of the Collapse, and was a key piece of the credibility the New World Order sought in the territories it controlled. It addressed the issue by building what it called 'nyz eru costo' or 'water houses' where it would strategically target reliable water supplies and electricity. These are actually called 'water houses' in English, as a calque from Common. A water house has toilets, taps and sinks for washing, pumps to collect water for home use, and baths.

These 'eru costo' were constructed in an ad hoc way in neighbourhood that previously had not had or needed such things, and they were constructed by the thousands. Later, as new housing got built, in better-served areas the water house might be built right into your building, making 'na eru komo', the 'water room'.

As an aside: Prior to the Collapse, most countries had sex-segregated toilet facilities, much as Britain does today, and even single-occupancy bathrooms were gendered, which of course is even farther than we go with this. In the New World Order, I did not see any sex-segregated toilets at all. That's not to say they may not exist somewhere, but I visited a lot of states all over the world and didn't see any. You may sometimes have a modicum of privacy such as stalls, but you may have to sit in the open and do your business next to someone else, including someone of the opposite gender, which takes some getting used to.

The use of water in eru costo facilities is often rationed. Their existence is a major element of the New World Order's credibility, so they are a tempting target for trols - hence, there may be a lot of security at these facilities, especially in less secure areas.

Water houses are often the nerve centres of their communities and may have other facilities such as meeting halls and gymnasiums. In colder areas, they frequently may be the only consistently warm building in a neighbourhood.

The New World Order manages the business of ensuring that better-off people have better facilities by mandating through regulation that localities must construct these facilities and auditing for compliance, but making the construction of these facilities a local responsibility. The locality will typically get a subsidy, based on the size of its tax base, and need to use this subsidy and its own taxes to build and maintain facilities. Thus one sees a range from very crude facilities in poorer, working class areas that are strictly functional, to very beautiful and elaborate facilities in better off areas.

In fact, there are even special, high-class eru costo frequented by the elites! These facilities directly imitate the lower class institutions, but are much more luxurious. Some elites consider frequenting such places to be unseemly, due to the associations with the poor, and the fact that a lot of sexual liaisons occur at these luxury bath houses. However, this edginess is precisely what attracts much of the clientele, who skew younger.

Major workplaces will have their own toilet facilities of some kind, especially if they have good access to electricity. Otherwise, people do their business wherever they need to. Much as in Britain, people think nothing of public urination. Unlike Britain, women are as likely to do it as men. Also unlike Britain, public defecation is much more tolerated, especially in very poor areas, although the New World Order is trying to get people to stop it for public health reasons.

In rural areas, electricity is much less reliable, and public water systems mostly don't exist. In areas that still have functioning aquifers, well water may be used, although often these wells need to be deep and rely on electricity to pump, so a very common use of electric windmills in rural areas is to power pumps, which in poor areas may be community pumps, a simple version of the urban eru costo. Otherwise, water may come from lakes or rivers, and may or may not be treated. Toilets are usually outside sheds constructed over holes in the ground.

In the Protectorates and Dependencies, of course, the New World Order compliance mandate to maintain such facilities does not stand, and conditions can be much more primitive, with millions of people not having even this level of access to safe drinking water, water for washing, and sanitary toilet facilities.

Common Vocabulary

In this section, we will go over some of the major vocabulary needed to talk about bath and toilet activities in Common.

Water

The Common word for 'water' is 'eru'. Some other words for natural bodies of water are 'uhíru', river, 'meru', lake, and 'zora', sea or ocean. In addition, here is some vocabulary related to artificial water sources:

Toilet Facilities

Here is a quick overview of the fixtures you will find in a toilet facility, in addition to taps and sunks for washing in the better toilets..

Regarding cleaning up: in more affluent areas, toilets will have a tap and sink for hand washing (the NWO encourages hand washing to fight the spread of disease) and a hose or toilet paper or both. In less affluent areas, other than in an eru costo, the toilet may just be a shack with a bench with one or more holes, and whatever paper people can get their hands on, or corn cobs, or whatever is available may be used for cleaning. Some work sites using such arrangements may provide an alcohol gel dispenser to at least kill germs,

Defecation

In Common, the non-euphemised word for defecate is 'se koro'. There are a plethora of euphemised forms. However, New World Order society is generally less coy about bodily functions than British society. Someone in completely polite company might say something like 'we se riske koro', 'approximately, 'I have to go take a shit', and no one will bat an eyelash. However, be careful about this because NWO society is incredibly complex and multi-layered, and what goes in one setting might not in another. Euphemised forms do exist and I would suggest that in an unfamiliar place, you might be better off to use them.

The clinical term for defecation and feces is 'se tefekat'. Euphemisms might be 'te wero y tylla', to make a coil, or more likely, 'se hitta jal', approximately, take a short rest.

There are many, many more idioms relating to the toilet, and we will expand this article over time.

Urination

In Common, the non-euphemised words for urination are actually 'se pissy', probably borrowed from English, and 'se waseru', a native compound. Again, there are a plethora of euphemised forms. However, New World Order society is less coy about bodily functions than British society, and much less so when it comes to urination as opposed to defecation.

The clinical term for urination and urine is 'se urinat', a technical borrowing. Euphemisms for urination include 'nox eru' and 'te wero yr eru'.

Again are many, many more idioms relating to the urination, and we will expand this article over time.

Bath Facilities

How often people bathe depends on their class, access to water and electricity, and as a corollary to that, their climate - lower class people in cold climates with poor access to water and electricity to heat it may even go an entire winter without fully bathing.

At the upper end of the social spectrum, except in the event of severe water shortage, elites generally bathe every day to once every few days. no less frequently than once a week, with daily washing of the face and hands. The ability to be clean is a clear social signal of belonging to the upper class, and you can literally smell the difference between the upper and lower classes. The professional class tends to have not as good access to water but to also be keenly class-conscious and to make great efforts to bathe at least once a week if at all possible in order to imitate the upper class.

Below the professional class, access to water and electricity can be unreliable and people tend to bath once a week at most, although they will try to wash their hands as frequently as possible, in accordance with relentless public health messaging.

Bath facilities are usually showers, both to save room and for the opportunities to save water. Showers may be in stalls, but mixed-gender open shower rooms are very common. Public baths sanitised with chlorine and with the water periodically refreshed are also common for both hygiene and recreation, especially in nicer facilities. Individual baths are not generally found in public bathing facilities, but are found in the homes of the elites - the professional class will usually just have a shower stall if they have a private bath at all.

Washing Oneself

The basic verb for washing oneself is 'sufet', to clean or set in order. When talking about washing oneself, the antipassive pali form is always used, where, like many Common antipassives, it is idiomatically reflexive. In order to talk about washing a part of yourself, you add it as a periphrastic argument using the null preposition. Examples:

We se sufet.
I am washing (myself).

We se sufet na pana.
1.S.ABS stand(NP.IM.R) clean ∅ 3.S.DEF.NOM face.
I am washing my face.

Notice that one does not use a possessive in these constructions, so 'I am washing the face', not 'I am washing my face'.

We se sufet nar sef.
I am washing my hands.

This type of paucal agreement for parts of the body is common, because they are few and exactly countable.

You can talk about bathing specifically with the verb 'fiteru', to immerse. It is another skurun verb used used in an antipassive form to talk about bathing oneself. So:

We se fiteru.
I am taking a bath.

You can also talk about taking a shower like:

We se zresumora.
I am taking a shower.

However, it would be more normal to just use 'sufet' for showering.

Washing Other Things

Washing another person or an object uses the same verbs, but in their base skurun forms. Examples:

Je te sufet a paluh.
I am washing the dog.

Je te fiteru a paluh.
I am bathing the dog (giving the dog a bath).

Je te sufet a zom.
I am washing the car.

Je te sufet ar sef.
I am washing (his/her) hands.

Notice in the last example, using the hands, 'ar sef' as the object of the verb in the skurun form automatically implies someone else's hands in idiomatic Common. The possession of the hands will generally be omitted if clear from context.