It is half a bathroom
No you don't get to ask why a bathroom is called a bathroom. It is like questioning the origin of a hot dog.
this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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And in the UK a “cloakroom” is very rarely a place specifically to hang your cloak…
You'd be amazed how much bathing some people manage to do with just a sink.
You've been to McDonald's I take it
On the other hand, if you say you are going to the bathroom, nobody expects you to take a shit in the bathtub
Which is what makes it all that much more satisfying when the next person goes in
You can bathe half your body in the sink and the other half in the toilet.
And now I'm going to touch grass
Don't forget to bathe after!
Cursed comment, but I’ll add on to it: If you plug the door slit with a towel the whole room becomes your tub.
Never heard "half bath", and I always called those washrooms.
It is common in the US, frequently they will be listed as 2 & 1/2 baths if they have two with tubs and one without.
Haven't paid enough attention to know how they list multiple 1/2 baths but pretty sure they don't add up like regular fractions...
I always found the term 1/2 bath weird.
that's some realtor math. they are known to magically inflate surface before you buy it, and shrink it back once you bought / rented it. Mathematicians can't explain that !
And a room with a toilet, sink, and shower stall is a 3/4 bath.
Anything to avoid the metric system!
I’ve never heard of this before. I have what you describe as 3/4 bath, but it was listed as a full bath in MLS.
If you put a bedpan and a washbasin in your closet, it's a 1/8 bath.
A litter box and some hand sanitizer in a wheelbarrow is a 1/16 bath.
Hole in the ground next to a pile of wet leaves? That's a 1/32 bath.
I did real estate for 12 years and never came across the term "3/4 bath".
Imagine getting a half bath but only the back half so you don't even get a faucet
half a sink, half a toilet, half a shower.
Haven't paid enough attention to know how they list multiple 1/2 baths but pretty sure they don't add up like regular fractions...
They'd either list them separately or as a whole and then clarify. E.g. "two full- and two half-baths"or something like "four bathrooms - two full"
Whatever we call them, it's always some euphemism hiding the fact tha it's the pooping room.
We call it the poop stick room.
Wafflestomp emporium
Commonly called called a 'powder room' in australia.
Maybe it's a class difference thing but I've more commonly heard it referred to as "the shitter," "dunny," or "toilet."
Powder room is where you store amino.
I’m in the US and powered room is used in places I’ve lived. But on real estate listings it is common to call it 1/2 bath.
or "water closet" in the UK
It's a way to conveniently talk about the number of bathrooms. You can say a house is "three bedroom, two and a half bath" and you convey that there are two bathrooms and one "washroom".
What gets confusing are these large homes, or McMansions that list 5 bedrooms and 7 and a half baths. So are they listing 3 powder rooms at 1.5 baths? I can’t afford them, so I only see it online; but that part gets weird. I have seen descriptions that then list full and partial though.
Or 5 powder rooms and zero bathtubs
Sure, it could mean that, but I don't think any could person would go to that conclusion.
The real weirdness originates from any room with a toilet being called a bathroom despite many not having bathtubs.
Technically if it doesn't have a bathtub or shower it is called a powder room. But that phrase is rarely used. (Mostly because 90% of the time when we say bathroom we mean toilet.)
Bath doesn't refer to the tub, it refers to bathing. You can 'sink bathe' with a rag and running sink water.
So a half-bath, contains 1/2 of the common furnishings for bathing.
Yeah, a "full" bathroom with just a shower also has zero bathtubs.
Good news! Most of the world would find that extremely weird (as with calling a room with no baths a bathroom). I think it's due to the euphemism treadmill.
At that point you're halfway to having a standard bathroom, so it makes sense to me.
We'd just call that room "the toilet"
And if you had half a bathtub, you could as well have no bathtub at all
If it's fixed to a waterproof wall, it would work. Weird, but work.
in german that room is just called "das klo" (the toilet)
*Klo
thx, fixed the typo, dam phone keyboards being so small
If you chop a bathtub in half and place the parts in different rooms, you can have two half baths. If you bring four such parts in the same room, you’ll get a double bath. Probably still not very good for actually bathing, because a half tubs don’t hold much water.
We call it a trap, khazi, bog, privy, WC, toilet…don’t think I’ve heard “half bath”.
By code a bathroom is a sink and any combination of a bidet, shower, tub, or toilet.
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