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Loo vs Dunny - What's the difference?

loo | dunny |

As a verb loo

is .

As a noun dunny is

(australia|new zealand|slang) a toilet, often outside and rudimentary.

As an adjective dunny is

(uk|dialect) deaf; stupid.

loo

English

Etymology 1

Uncertain; possible origins include: * French lieux'', short for ''lieux d'aisances ‘toilets’, literally ‘places of convenience’. * A particular brand of early toilet cisterns, trademarked 'Waterloo'. A common folk etymology is that the word comes from the exclamation gardyloo'', from French ''garde à l'eau ‘mind the water!’, used when emptying dirty water or slops out of a window onto the public sidewalk or street.

Noun

(en noun)
  • (colloquial, Australia, NZ, UK) A toilet.
  • * 2006 , Garth Thompson, Dov Fedler, The Guide?s Guide to Guiding , 3rd Edition, Jacana Media, South Africa, page 160,
    • Ensure that the tents are well-sited and clean, rubbish bins empty and that the loos have toilet paper.
  • * 2009 , Katharina Kane, The Gambia and Senegal , Lonely Planet, page 275,
    • The lack of running water in rural areas often makes Western-style loos hygienic disasters. Suddenly the noncontact squat toilet doesn?t look like such a bad option any more (as long as you roll up your trouser legs).
  • * 2010 , Meegan Jones, Sustainable Event Management: A Practical Guide , Earthscan, page 206,
    • Waterless urinals are a great way of keeping the guys out of the cubicle toilets, keeping the urine separated from the solid waste (when using composting loos') and reducing water consumption if you have flush ' loos .
    References

    Etymology 2

    Shortened form of lanterloo.

    Noun

    (-)
  • The card game lanterloo.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To beat in the game of loo by winning every trick.
    • (Goldsmith)

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (-)
  • A hot, dusty wind in Bihar and the Punjab.
  • * 1888 , Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Man Who Would be King’, The Phantom ’Rickshaw and Other Tales , Folio Society 2005, p. 135:
    • It was a pitchy black night, as stifling as a June night can be, and the loo , the red-hot wind from the westward, was booming among the tinder-dry trees and pretending that the rain was on its heels.
    English terms with unknown etymologies ----

    dunny

    English

    Etymology 1

    From , via Australian convicts' flash language brought from London.

    Noun

    (dunnies)
  • (Australia, New Zealand, slang) A toilet, often outside and rudimentary.
  • * 2008 , Judith L. McNeil, No One's Child , page 95,
    • There was one leaning dunny' down the back and, if you stayed very quiet, on a very still day you could hear the white ants as they chewed the wood.The bottom boards were already eaten through, and I avoided using the ' dunny at all costs.
  • * 2010 , Kathleen M. McGinley, Out of the Daydream: Based on the Autobiography of Barry Mcginley Jones , page 47,
    • The dunny was another place to go to get out of class. You got to go there by raising your hand in class and asking Miss if you could go to the lav.
  • * 2010', Christopher Milne, ''The Boy Who Lived in a '''Dunny'' , in ''The Day Our Teacher Went Mad and Other Naughty Stories for Good Boys and Girls , unnumbered page,
    • ‘Until you wake up to yourself, you can live in the old dunny for all I care.’
    ‘All right, I will,’ said Tony.
  • (Scottish and northern English, slang, dated) An outside toilet, or the passageway leading to it; (by extension) a passageway or cellar.
    • Derived terms
    * dunny can * dunny cart * dunny man

    Etymology 2

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (UK, dialect) Deaf; stupid.
  • * (rfdate) (Sir Walter Scott)
    • My old dame Joan is something dunny , and will scarce know how to manage.