"bathroom" in seven languages
Meaningbathroom
Spanish
baño
/ˈbaɲo/
masc.inherited
French
salle de bains
/sal də bɛ̃/
fem.inherited
Literally 'room of baths'; bain alone is a bath. The toilet is les toilettes.
Italian
bagno
/ˈbaɲɲo/
masc.inherited
Portuguese
banheiro
/bɐ̃ˈɲejɾu/
masc.inherited
banho 'bath' + -eiro; in Portugal the room is the casa de banho.
Romanian
baie
/ˈbaje/
fem.inherited
Catalan
bany
/baɲ/
masc.inherited
English
bathroom
/ˈbæθɹum/
native English · English bath + room
English → ItalianbathroombagnoNot relatedDifferent sources — learn this one fresh. But English has relatives: bagnio, balneology.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
BALNEUM (spoken *BANNIUM)‘bath’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Spoken Latin simplified BALNEUM to *banniu; the ny-sound then became ñ, gn and the French nasal in bain. In Spain and Italy, 'the bath' is also the polite word for the toilet.
English relatives: bagnio, balneology
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- es¿Dónde está el baño?
- frOù est la salle de bains ?
- itDov'è il bagno?
- ptOnde fica o banheiro?
- roUnde e baia?
- caOn és el bany?
- enWhere is the bathroom?