Call of Nature: The Secret Life of Dung

Billets, or billetings, etymology highly suspect, but used in old books to mean the dung of the fox. Probably only ever used by medieval hunters.

Bullshit, pretty obvious blunt derivation. Slightly vulgar term meaning nonsense, but implying a deliberate attempt to mislead. See ‘chickenshit’ and ‘poppycock’.

Cack, from the Latin cacare, and Greek κακκη (kakkh), to void excrement, and the excrement itself. Similar to the infantile-sounding ‘caca’ (or ‘cacca’) used by Italian children. Related to the Greek κακος (kakos), meaning bad or evil, from which we get words like cacophonous. This puts another slant on the notion of cack-handed meaning more than being just a bit awkward. A caccagogue is an ointment of alum and honey, used as a laxative. Caccobius is a genus of dung beetle (Scarabaeidae), and Hypocaccus a genus of clown beetle (Histeridae).

Caecotrophy, from the Latin caecum originally meaning blind, and Greek τροφιψος trophicos, pertaining to food and nutrition. In anatomy the ‘caecum’ is the ‘blind’ gut, a pouch at the beginning of the large intestine, reduced to the appendix in humans, but a large digestive organ in many herbivores. Caecotrophy is the reingestion of special mucus-covered faeces (caecotropes), especially by rabbits, to obtain additional nutrients on a second pass through the gut.

Caccobius, lives under cack.

Call of nature, idiomatic expression of a general need to urinate or defecate. The only euphemism I will allow myself, but only if accompanied by the natural act itself, somewhere out in nature. See ‘stercore humano’ below.

Cast, from Middle English casten, to throw, or the thing that is thrown. Worm casts are the digested remains of the worm’s meal, quite literally thrown up onto the surface of the soil by the animal at the entrance to its burrow, into a neat twisted tubular tangle. Arguably this is what soil is, at least the humus layer that covers most of the vegetated world. Charles Darwin spent many a happy year measuring exactly how much soil was cast up by earthworms.

Castings, similar to ‘cast’, but in this case the pellets thrown up by owls, falcons and other birds of prey. Technically not dung (although similarly shaped) as they are ejected from the oral, rather than the cloacal end of the bird, and comprise undigested skin, fur, bones, gristle, sinew and feathers.

Cesspit, or cesspool, origin uncertain, but maybe a corruption from ‘sus-pool’, a place where hogs wash, sus being Latin for pig. A pit, or covered tank for receiving domestic sewage, allowing solids to be biodegraded by bacterial action and water to seep out into the surrounding soil.

Chickenshit, similarly straightforward derivation to ‘bullshit’, but rather than implying deceit, it suggests something so trivial as to be inconsequential. See ‘poppycock’.

Commode, from the Latin commodus, ‘convenient’. A chair or other piece of furniture containing or concealing a chamber pot. Nowadays only used in hospitals, or where some incapacitated person needs the immediate convenience of a discreetly disguised toilet close by.

Coprology, from Greek κοπρος (kopros), dung, and λογος (logos), a discourse. The study of dung, although some less erudite dictionaries claim it means the use of obscenity in speech, literature or art. Similar are ‘coprophagous’ (eating dung), ‘coprovore’ (a dung-eater), ‘coprophilous’ (dung-loving), and ‘coprolite’ (fossilised dung). Copris lunaris is the handsome English scarab, now sadly extinctin England. Coprinus is a genus of mushroom, the ink caps, often found growing out of old pats, but delicious to eat.

Sadly, when researching this book I was unable to find a specific technical term for chicken droppings.

Crap, from Middle English and Dutch krappe, originally rubbish, bits cut off, sifted or thrown away, and at one time mainly used to mean chaff of various cereals, and the residue left by brewing beer, or the dregs in the barrel (see ‘faeces’). It’s tempting to link it to ‘scrap’, in the sense of leftovers, discarded or rejected rubbish. Now vulgar slang for excrement, and the act of dropping it, though ‘crappy’ still retains the original meaning of not very good. In Britain, at least, slightly less abruptly expletive than ‘shit’. Nothing to do with Thomas Crapper, sometime claimant to the invention of the water closet.

Crottels, also croteys, crotisings, etc., seemingly from the Old French crotte, the larger pelleted droppings of sheep and goat, but taking the diminutive ending for the smaller round pellets of rabbit and hare. Several alternative archaic spellings include ‘croteys’ and ‘crotisings’. Mostly in ancient books on hunting or rabbit husbandry, but a word I’d like to see repopularised. Several French cheeses take the name crottin, which even though this translates as ‘dung’ appear to be quite popular. Their roundish, blob-shaped forms resemble goat droppings. Maybe they’re ironic.

Dags, from Middle English, something that hangs, related to ‘tags’. The small pellets of dung caught in the matted wool under the tail of an unkempt sheep. Mainly Australia and New Zealand.

Defecate, the act of dropping or passing faeces (see below). Mostly in formal prose in medical, zoological or scatological textbooks and other scientific literature.

Diarrhoea, from Greek δια dia ‘through’ and ρεω rheo ‘a flow’. Quite literally a flowing through. Sometimes called ‘flux’ by literary types. No more needs to be said.

Dirt, from Norse drit, old Dutch driet and modern Dutch drijten, to void excrement. Almost entirely with changed meaning nowadays, and used for the earth layer in which plants grow, or the stains made from it. About the only time it ever means dung now is the occasional coy or euphemistic tabloid exclamation about dog dirt. A similar transformation has occurred with ‘soil’, see below.

Doll, of Scottish origin, therefore of doubtful etymology, meaning dung, particularly that of pigeons.

Dreck, also dregs, possibly from Norse dregg or Swedish drägs, meaning to draw, and implying leftovers, or sediment after liquor is drawn off. Still familiar to tea and beer drinkers who might leave dregs at the bottom of cup or barrel. Now rather obsolete for dung.

Dropping, something that is dropped, from the Old English dropian or droppian. Although potentially blighted by the idea that this might be a euphemism (and therefore pathetically prudish), farmers and hunters have long referred to droppings in a purely down-to-earth fashion. The OED suggests it should now only be plural, but entomologists, at least, commonly refer to an individual, rather than to a scattering of them. So that’s all right.

Dung, self-explanatory if you’ve read this far in the book, and my descriptor of choice, from the old English dung or dyngian. See ‘midden’. Not an expletive in any sense. The OED suggests hyphenating dung beetle and dung fly, but until recently entomologists have kept words separate if they are what they say (so dung flies truly are flies), but joining those that are not (butterflies are not flies). This, however, is much misunderstood, often flouted, and probably not really very historically robust.

Easement, from the Old French aisement, after aisier to ease, and literally meaning anything that gives relief. If it were not so delightfully archaic it could easily be dismissed as an unnecessary euphemism. Ought to be more popular. Look out for it in gritty historical novels.

Earth closet, a fairly basic toilet, just a step up from a latrine, where earth is used to cover the excrement deposited in the hole. See ‘water closet’.

Egesta, from Latin egestus from egerere, to expel. Waste matter ejected by the body. Very obscure, archaic, now very rare, even in medical texts.

Excrement, from the Old French excrément or Latin excrementum, and meaning, in very physiological terms, what remains after the body has sifted through food, and has subsequently been ejected from within. Often used in a cold biological or medical sense similar to excretion, from which we also get the very formal sounding ‘excreta’.

Fewmets (also fumets, fumes, fumeshings), from Anglo-French fumets or fumez, and the Latin fimare (dung), and used in some very old books on hunting to describe the droppings of the various quarry, but especially of deer. Not to be confused with ‘fumet’, a rich stock, usually of game or fish, used in cooking.

Faeces (or, in the USA, feces), from the Latin faeces, the plural of faex, sediment or dregs, and related to ‘faecula’ or ‘fecula’ which, at the end of the 19th century, still meant a crust of wine, sediment or lees. Like ‘excrement’, its use is often in a hard, cold biological or forensic sense.

Fiants, friants, fyants or fuants, from the Old French fient and possibly the Latin fimus (dung). A delightfully archaic term, from old books on hunting, to mean the dung of the fox, or sometimes the badger. We could do with bringing this one back into fashion.

Fimicolous, from Latin fimus dung and colere to inhabit, growing in dung. Originally coined by botanists to describe plants growing in dung, but easily appropriated by entomologists. Also ‘fimetarious’. The attractive black and red UK dung beetle Aphidius fimetarius is aptly named.

Frass, from the German frass, itself from fressen, to devour (now only used for animals), and specifically used for the droppings of insect larvae (particularly caterpillars) and the powdery detritus left by wood-boring insects. One of the many arcane terms an entomologist can throw into the conversation to show off.

Garderobe, from Middle English and Old French, garder to watch and robe clothing, and similar to toilet (see below) in originally meaning a dressing room (a wardrobe). Nowadays most familiar to visitors at ancient castles and manorial ruins where all that remains is a seat above a hole which would have taken ordure directly down into the moat.

Gong, gonge or goonge, from Anglo Saxon gang, a going, a passage, a privy. Wholly outdated and obsolete now, but occasionally used in the hyper-archaic term ‘gong-farmer’, someone who cleared and cleaned out cess pits or privies.

Guano, via the Spanish guano and huano from wanu or huanu, meaning ‘dung’ in the original Quechua language of the South American indigenous peoples. The long-term (centuries or millennia) accumulations of bird droppings, specifically the guanay cormorant, Phalacrocorax bougainvillii, along the western edge of South America. This extremely dry zone retains the excrement without it being leached by rain or removed by recycling scavengers. Its high phosphorus and nitrogen content made it valuable as a soil fertiliser. Also now used for similar long-lasting heaps of bat dung in caves.

Honeydew, combination of honey (which it tastes like) and dew (which it looks like). Clear or pale tawny liquid excreted by aphids (greenfly). In sucking so much plant sap to get the meagre protein content, aphid excrement is little changed from the watery juice in leaves and stems. Ants ‘milk’ the aphids in exchange for protection services. Some bumblebees and butterflies lap up the spilled honeydew where it drips onto the leaves.

Jakes, a privy, or outdoor toilet, etymology uncertain. Well used by Shakespeare, who may have punned the French name Jaques (deliberately mispronounced ‘jay-quees’) with it. ‘Jacksie’, very informal British expression for bottom, supposedly related, but since ‘jack’ is reputed to be the English word with the highest number of different meanings, this may be wholly coincidental.

Latrine, from the French and Latin latrina, itself a contraction of lavatrina, originally from lavare, to wash (see ‘lavatory’). Traditionally a temporary hole or trench dug in the ground for the sole purpose of receiving excrement, usually a communal facility at campsite or military base. The collection of small shallow dung pits dug by badgers is aptly described as a latrine.

Lavatory, Middle English, from Latin lavatorium, a place for washing (from lavare, to wash). Originally a wash house, with baths and/or laundry, but a toilet since the 19th century. Sometimes shortened to ‘lavy’, ‘lavvy’ or ‘lavvie’. I grew up thinking that the handsome pink-flowered tree mallows, Lavatera species, were named because, in times past, they had been planted near latrines, privies and lavatories, so that the soft leaves could be used instead of toilet paper. I now discover that I have been cruelly misled, and in fact they are so called after the Laveter brothers, renowned 17th-century Swiss physicians and naturalists.

Laystall, also laye-stowe, ley-stall and loi-stal, a joining of stall (in the sense of a stable) and what lays on the floor inside it – dung, or a dung heap. Obscurely dialectical (hence variant spellings). See ‘stallage’, below.

Lesses, from French laisées, leavings, and related to ‘lees’, the dregs in a wine bottle. The dung of wild boar.

Loo, origin unknown, but first appeared about 1940. Possibly a contraction of ‘Waterloo’, a punning trade name for a wily cistern and water closet manufacturer. A thoroughly British word, pompously coy and socially egalitarian in equal measure.

Make water, a tired euphemism for ‘urination’. Now sounding like a line from Carry on Nurse or some such 1950s blather.

Manure, from Anglo-French mainoverer and Old French manouvrer (related to ‘manoeuvre’) meaning to cultivate land, and mostly used as verb, or noun to mean composted animal dung, mixed with hay, straw or sawdust and used to fertilize the soil.

Merde, French expletive, from the Latin merda, dung, more or less equivalent to, and meaning, ‘shit’. Since it’s in a foreign language, it can be safely used in a knowing humorous way, as less vulgarly offensive than either ‘shit’ or ‘crap’. The only even vaguely associated word in English appears to be the obscure ‘merdigerous’, meaning carrying dung, in the way that tortoise beetle and lily beetle larvae cover themselves in their own excrement. I read in a book, so it must be true, that in Alsace, on the German–French border, horse dung was known by the mixed language term ‘Pferde merde’. Several dung beetles take the specific epithet merdarius.

Micturation, from Latin micturire, to urinate. Rather obscure nowadays, and generally limited to technical, medical or forensic texts.

Midden (also mixhill, mixen, myxen and myxene), Middle English myddyng, from Scandinavian myk-dyngja, literally a muck heap. Essentially a general organic refuse heap, kitchen, farmyard, faecal, or all three. Nowadays mostly used in the historical or archaeological sense of excavating ancient rubbish dumps to discover how our predecessors lived, and what they ate.

Muck, Middle English muk, possibly from similar origins as ‘midden’ from Scandinavian myk-dyngia, supposedly related to Old Norse myki meaning dung, itself from Old German root muks meaning ‘soft’, hence ‘meek’. My mother is the daughter of a second-generation north Kent farmer and when I started writing this book I approached her to see if they had used any specialist terms for the dung of particular animals, or any local dialect words. Her response: ‘We just called it muck.’ Yeah, thanks Mum.

Mutes, via French mutir and Old French esmeutir and esmeltir, Old Dutch smelten, smilten, to smelt, to urinate, and related to smelt in the sense of releasing (melting) liquid metal from ore. The excrement of falcons or hawks, although historically used for the droppings of many different birds. Mostly plural in modern bird of prey books, but singular used to be acceptable.

Night soil, see ‘soil’ below. Human sewage, supposedly collected discreetly under the cover of darkness so as not to offend the sensibilities. Either disposed of at the midden or dung heap, or used for manure, or in the leather tanning industry.

Number twos, infantile euphemism for defecation, along with ‘plop-plops’ and ‘big jobs’, and contrasting with urinary ‘number ones’. My father told of his time as a very young child hospitalised with diphtheria in the early 1930s. Each morning the nurses would work their way along the ward, asking each bed-ridden child in turn whether it would be number ones or number twos that day. Childish repetition gives ‘two-twos’, which might have been corrupted to ‘doo-doos’. In my own early schooldays I remember playing Lego with other 5-year-olds, and I could never understand why picking up a piece with two studs (obviously called a ‘two’) was fine, but playing with two ‘twos’ reduced several of my classmates to uncontrollable giggles.

Ordure, from old French ord, meaning ‘foul’, a corruption from Latin horridus, ‘horrid’. Excrement in its widest sense, and also used for anything unpleasant or noxious.

Pat, Middle English patte, something flat. The flat, round dung of cattle. Also sometimes ‘pie’, ‘pad’ and (especially in North America) ‘chips’.

Pee, childish or prudish contraction to the initial letter of the slightly more vulgar ‘piss’. Similar to ‘wee-wee’.

Po, from the French pot de chambre (chamber pot), a potty. A pot, usually porcelain or enamelled metal, for use in the bedroom, rather than having to go outside to the privy.

Poo (or sometimes pooh), infantile exclamation of disgust, now attached to faeces (sometimes as ‘poop’) and the act of defecation. Should only be used if talking to small children or tabloid journalists.

Poppycock, nonsense, silliness or downright twaddle. From the Dutch pappekak – dung (kak) which is soft (pap), or has come from a doll (pop). Has the same connotations, if more gently expressed, as ‘chickenshit’ or ‘bullshit’.

Privy, from the French privé, meaning private. A toilet, usually in a small shed, outside the house, in the garden. Originally anything private, secret, hidden or shared only between close associates, hence ‘being privy to’ some particular knowledge, or the UK monarch’s Privy Council.

Public convenience, a public toilet, usually one built through municipal munificence for the benefit and convenience of the passing public. See ‘spend a penny’, below.

Restroom, North American euphemistic term for toilet, particularly one in a public building such as an office, hotel, restaurant or service station. Before I visited the USA, I always had vague imaginings that in such a wealthy country these must be luxurious places, sumptuously fitted, and with comfy sofas and chairs in which the resting might take place. Needless to say, I was later disappointed.

Road apples, North American slang term for horse droppings, alluding to the shape and size of the nearly round boluses of dung which scatter when dropped onto a hard road surface.

Rypophagous, from Greek ρυπος (rypos) dirt and φαγειν (phagein) feeding. Eating or subsisting on filth. Not an everyday word, and one I suspect has not been seriously used since the 19th century, when dung beetle study was on the ascendant.

Scarn, possibly also sharn, from Anglo Saxon scearn, and similar to Norse and Danish skarn, dung. According to old dictionaries it was obscurely dialectical, probably mostly Scottish, at the end of the 19th century. One online dictionary claims scarn-bee as a dung beetle. Who knows?

Scat, from Greek σκατ (scat), animal dung, especially that from a carnivorous mammal, such as otter, bear, wolf, fox. Mostly used by hunters and naturalists. This same root gives us ‘scatology’, the study of dung, and is immortalised in the name of the common yellow dung fly Scathophaga (dung-eating) stercoraria (dung-inhabiter). Skatole is one of the more fragrant chemical substances in dung giving it its distinctive smell.

Scumber, contraction of ‘discumber’, or ‘disencumber’, in the sense of getting rid of an encumbrance. Archaic term for voiding dung, also the dung itself, especially that of a fox.

Scybala, from Greek σκυβαλον (skubalon), dung. A hardened mass of faeces, now only used in the most technical of obscure medical books to describe the sort of thing that happens in extreme constipation. The scarce British dung beetle Aphodius scybalarius is now, sadly, known as A. foetidus.

The ubiquitous yellow dung fly, Scathophaga stercoraria.

Sewage (or sewerage). Combined effluent from domestic houses and public buildings, taken away by some sort of drainage system (see ‘sewer’ below), and including faeces, urine, flush water and general washing water; often incorporating rain run-off from gutters, road surfaces and other forms of hard standing. ‘Saur’, which may be related, is an archaic and now obsolete word for dirty water.

Sewer, via medieval Latin seware, and the Roman Latin exaquare from ex ‘out’ and aqua ‘water’. Drainage system by which sewage is taken away. In the developed world most sewers are underground pipes, but traditionally they would have been river courses, then specially constructed ditches. Water-beetling, as a boy, on the Lewes Levels in Sussex, I was more than a little perturbed to discover that one of the big ditches I was exploring with a water net was called Celery Sewer. It took some time to convince myself that Lewes’s effluent no longer passed through it.

Shard, Shakespearean for dung? Odd one this. Shakespeare uses the expression shard-born to describe dor beetles ‘the shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Macbeth, III.ii.42), and some dictionaries claim he meant born in dung. But it seems more likely to me that he meant shard-borne, i.e. carried on shards, meaning the stiff wing-cases which are like broken pot shards. Likewise in Antony and Cleopatra (III.ii.20) ‘They are his shards, and he their beetle’ implies a supportive, rather than an excremental relationship.

Shit, old English scitte ‘diarrhoea’, and similar to Dutch schijten and German scheissen. Excrement, and the act of depositing it. Now more often used as a vulgar expletive, possibly slightly more robust that ‘crap’. ‘Shitty’, like ‘crappy’, is often used to mean not very good, rather than covered in dung.

Soil, possibly from Old French soiller, from the Latin sucula, diminutive of sus, pig, perhaps the scurrilous implication being of pigs wallowing in their own excrement. A general term for waste, sewage, excrement. Now rather archaic, and apart from ‘soil pipe’, the large-diameter drain from the lavatory pan, barely used in modern language. Related to ‘sullage’, previously used for sewage in general, but recently more for waste water only. Separate from ‘soil’ in the sense of the earthen layer in which plants grow. The two are confused in the notion of something being ‘soiled’ (dirtied), which seems, to me, closer to the excremental than the horticultural. See ‘night soil’.

Dor beetle, Geotrupes species, shard-borne rather than shard-born.

Spend a penny, quaint euphemism for going to the toilet. The penny was used in the pay-slot on the cubicle doors of public toilets, a charge to cover their upkeep. Often used to imply urination, on the grounds, perhaps, that a penny was not very much – a small thing – but if my memory serves, gent’s toilets at least were free to use the urinals. So the charge was actually only applied to something bigger. Nothing to do with ‘pee’; though in the UK the modern penny (100 = £1) is abbreviated to ‘p’, the pennies spent in public lavatories were invariably the older and much larger penny (240 = £1), which was designated ‘d’, from the Roman coin denarius.

Spoor, from the Afrikaans spoor, originally Dutch (sometimes spor), meaning tracks. Traditionally used in hunting to mean signs, scent, footprints or droppings of an animal that a tracker can use to follow it during the hunt or safari trip. Incidentally, if you do a Google image search for ‘spoor’ you don’t get footprints or droppings, you get hundreds of pictures of railway tracks, courtesy of Dutch transport and engineering websites.

Spraints, from Old French espreintes, from espraindre, to squeeze out, after the Latin exprimere to express. Otter excrement, which is squeezed out, along with a copious secretion of anal jelly lubricant, to aid the passage of sharp fish bones. Used mainly by hunters and naturalists.

Stallage, originally from the French estallage, itself from estal, a stall (in the sense of a stable) and meaning both the rent or right for creating, keeping or using a stall to keep an animal, and subsequently the dung dropped whilst the stall was in use. Perhaps echoing words like spillage and sewage.

Stercore, Latin for dung. Hardly used nowadays, but there was a fashion amongst some entomologists to record dung beetles as being found in stercore equino (horse dung), stercore ovino (sheep) or stercore bovino (cattle). Latin descriptions and accounts were once intermingled with English, but this prudish excuse for not using the word ‘dung’ occurred well into the 20th century. There was also the occasional reference to the more adventurous entomologists finding beetles in stercore humano. Also gives us ‘stercovorous’ eating dung, ‘stercorate’ dung or manure, ‘stercorary’ a dung or manure store, ‘stercoricolous’ for a plant growing out of dung, ‘stercorite’ a mineral found in guano, and ‘Sterculius’ a Roman god who presided over manuring. The yellow dung fly is Scathophaga stercoraria. The skuas, large seabirds also called jaegers, have the generic name Stercorarius, from their habit of eating carrion and food they have frightened other birds into vomiting up.

Stool, from Dutch stoel and German Stuhl, a chair. A sample of human faeces. Originally a real stool, seat or chair with a hole, on which to sit whilst defecating into a pot underneath, but later to mean the bowel evacuation itself. Now only used in medical texts, hence the Bristol Stool Chart, a visual guide to textural consistency of stools, used in academic studies and medical diagnosis.

Tath, also tad, taith or teathe, from Norse tath, dung and tatha, a manured field. Highly obscure and dialectical, Scottish? As well as meaning the dung, or manure itself, it can also mean the strong grass growing round the decomposing remains of cattle dung. Tadfall self-explanatory. Probably not used in any agricultural textbook this side of 1850.

Toilet, from French toilette, a cloth, diminutive of toile, and originally a place to wash and/or dress, the cloth being a cover for a dressing table, or a towel. Now meaning the room, or the plumbed bowl, where urination and defecation takes place. See ‘lavatory’. One of my old school teachers refused to allow us to leave the class if we asked to go to the toilet; she insisted we asked to go to the lavatory, as if this were in some way a more refined term. I never liked her.

Treddles, and trottles, seemingly similar to treadle, from Anglo Saxon tredel, tread. Archaic term for dung of sheep or hare, something to do with them being trodden on? It’s tempting to imagine that ‘the trots’, euphemistically informal for an attack of diarrhoea, might have some connection here, but maybe that use is just as likely to be an implication of speed, either of the output, or of the victim moving towards the toilet.

Turd, from old English tord, excrement. Now used only in vulgar slang. In Old English, a dung beetle was a tordwifel (literally a turd weevil), and it is still tordivel in modern Norwegian. According to some sources it is represented in cockney rhyming slang as a Richard (the Third). This being my name I prefer Richard to mean ‘bird’. This fits much better with the old-fashioned shortening of Richard, through Ricky, to Dicky, thus also the much more familiar ‘dicky bird’ = ‘word’, as in: ‘Don’t say a dicky bird about this faecal association’. Got that?

Urine, from the Latin urina. Watery liquid discharged from the bladder, containing urea, CO(NH2)2, a safe, non-toxic waste product to remove ammonia (NH3) after protein metabolism. In birds and other non-mammalian animals, nitrogen is excreted as a heterocyclic compound, C5H4N4O3, uric acid.

Waggyings, etymology uncertain. Reputedly the dung of the fox, according to ancient treatises on rural economy, wildlife and hunting.

Werdrobe, or Werderobe, so far I’m unable to find anything about the etymology of this word. According to various very old, very obscure and very questionable books, it is the dung of the badger. Nowadays, as any internet search will quickly show, it is all too frequently a spelling mistake for ‘wardrobe’.

Water closet, a plumbed toilet, using a water flush, and a bit more advanced than an earth closet. Nowadays more often known by its initials WC.