Urinarium
2005-11-29
Category: GeneralI am always amazed at the origins of words. Some words are left over from ancient tongues. Other words are the mangled remains of foreign phrases. Still others are made up to serve a specific purpose. That?s the one I?m after.
If you visit Linn Hall of Kirkwood College, you will find restrooms near the main entrance. These are carefully tucked beneath some stairs. To make the best use of the space, the men?s room has an L shape. The primary part has the sinks and the stalls. The area that angles off is basically a smaller room lined with urinals. I call this area the Urinarium.
I modeled the word on ?vomitorium?, a room where people in ancient Rome would go to vomit so they could keep eating. (NOTE: I don?t know for sure if this is a real thing or just some story people tell.) Either way, the structure of the word seemed sufficiently sound for my purposes. The Urinarium is a room where people go to urinate.
It is my hope that this word will find its way into the English language and someday appear in dictionaries. This will be my mark on the world. (Plenty of creatures use urine to leave a mark.)
I ask of you two simple things. First, please use the word Urinarium whenever appropriate. Second, please make up words of your own for things that seem to lack lexoconigraphical support. Alternately, you could just make up words and phrases that seem humorous.
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