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Loo vs Loa - What's the difference?

loo | loa |

As nouns the difference between loo and loa

is that loo is a toilet while loa is in the voodoo religion, a spirit intermediary between Bondye (the creator god) and human beings.

As a verb loo

is to beat in the game of loo by winning every trick.

As an initialism LOA is

leave of absence.

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 ----

    loa

    English

    (wikipedia loa)

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • In the voodoo religion, a spirit intermediary between Bondye (the creator god) and human beings.
  • * 2009 , (Diarmaid MacCulloch), A History of Christianity , Penguin 2010, p. 714:
    • Equally surprising is to find St Patrick so prominent in many Vodou shrines, until one remembers that he too had been a slave who had twice crossed the sea, the second time to freedom, and that he had particular power over snakes, like the loa'' (Haitian equivalent of ''orisha ) Dambala Wèdo.

    Anagrams

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