English Idiom: Spend a penny
How would you like it if you were trying to spend a penny, without paying and someone started to take away the portable toilet?
Would you think it was funny?
The first thing to know is that spend a penny is a euphemism that means to use the restroom.
In mid-nineteenth-century England, coin-operated locks were placed on public toilets.
A person was unable to open the door to the toilet stall unless they paid a penny.
If you think about it, pay toilets are a terrible thing. It’s often poor people who need to use a public bathroom.
Requiring them to pay is taxing people to use the bathroom. As another thought, it’s not a ‘public’ toilet if only the paying public can use it.
I can remember that when I was a kid in eastern Canada, my father talked about having to pay 10 cents to open a coin-operated lock on a public toilet stall in a department store.
Many Westerners feel uncomfortable saying that they are going to the toilet.
In Britain, you may hear a person say they are going to spend a penny instead.
