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house of office. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
house of office, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
house of office in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From the mostly archaic sense of office as a "duty" or "function" and hence unmentionable "bodily functions".
Noun
house of office (plural houses of office)
- (obsolete, euphemistic) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.
- 1660 20 October, Samuel Pepys, diary:
- Going down my cellar to look, I put my foot into a heap of turds, by which I find that Mr Turner’s house of office is full and comes into my cellar, which doth trouble me; but I will have it helped.
- 1764 August 5, David Garrick, letter:
- I never, since I left England, till now, have regal'd Myself with a good house of Office... the holes in Germany are... too round, chiefly owing... to the broader bottoms of the Germans.
1823, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto XI, §xl, ll. 123 f:The very clerks—those somewhat dirty springs
Of office, or the House of Office.
Synonyms
References
- Oxford English Dictionary. "office, n."