Privvy counsel

Hi, a friend of mine has just used the saying : 'backdoor trots'. I undertsand what it means but where did the saying come from?

Outhouses or privies are located outside in back of the house, usually.

etymonline says "the trots" for diarrhea is recorded as far back as 1808. It is a play on "the runs". Backdoor (whether this refers to outsides or backsides) adds emphasis (and makes it clear you're not talking about horses running).

Outsides. As evidenced by the variations: backdoor quicksteps, backhouse trots, backyard trots. From "Dictionary of American Regional English," Volume 1 by Frederic G. Cassidy (1985, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England). Page 119.

in most communities, places to defecate are off the beaten track - usually to the rear of habitations. when terraced housing was introduced in the UK, just about nobody had inside waste facilities; almost everybody had a backyard "privvy" - a place to empty oneself in private.

my grandmother (born 1892) was very reluctant to have an inside facility - many people of that era found the idea of bringing toilet facilities indoors unhygienic.

BTW - I have stuggled with the nomenclature - whilst a 'toilet' or 'lavatory' is common usage both mean 'to wash' and are almost as daft as 'wash-room' - at least that is better than 'rest-room', as washing ones hands is at least part of the process.
referring to the sanitary-ware as the 'crapper' or the '****ter' may sound crude, but it avoids a misnoma. I may not know much, but I know not to wash in a toilet bowl.

L

But anything at all is better that "I'm off to visit Auntie Lou". Pamela