As you will see from
Webster 1913's entry, the
toilet is
not the thing you excrete into. It is, in
correct English,
the act of 'freshening up'. It used to be that for a
lady or
gentleman to 'make one's toilet' would mean to wash one's hands, shave, have a haircut - basically to perform (or to have performed) any acts of
grooming and
personal hygiene. This would not include
going to the lavatory.
Various public spaces and so on used to have separate rooms for (making one's) 'Toilet' and (going to the) 'Lavatory' (or water closet). You would use one, then the other. These two rooms became combined into one, particularly when the designers of passenger trains wanted to save space, and the word less overtly descriptive of the primary act was used for the sign on the door. The word toilet has now become the accepted (or rather, tolerated) noun meaning lavatory; indeed, the word lavatory itself means literally 'the place for washing', but has for a while been the word used for the flushing poo-bowl that the good Mr. Thomas Crapper branded with his name and sold so widely. Others (some dysphemisms created by those fed up with words like 'pee'/'wee' and 'toilet') follow:
-
bathroom/washroom (for somewhat similar reasons to 'toilet' - and why, especially if there's no bath?)
- khazi
- bog
- can
- john
- ladies'/gents (room)
- long drop
- shitter/shit-house
- dump tank
- Nightstool (my favourite, courtesy of literal Chinese translation)
- (public) convenience
- privy
and the truly sickening
- 'restroom'/'place of easement'
English people say 'loo', and rarely 'toilet'. In polite situations, you sometimes say lavatory. One of the easiest ways to spot a foreigner (as opposed to someone who merely has a foreign accent) is their choice of words on this matter. On the whole, non-English-speaking people say toilet, while Americans say bathroom. This can be confusing to some Europeans, who actually do have a separate room for a bath/shower and sink.