The following post is definitely safe for work. But, as a warning, it does involve a fair bit of scatological references.
From time to time, you may have wondered where the term “crapper” comes from. That would especially be the case if you had a few too many cheap beers and needed to get rid of the “Bud mud” or “Busch mush”, deposit a “Natty splatty” or “Schlitz shitz”, or otherwise relieve yourself.
It turns out that crapper is not just a play on the slang word crap. Crapper is actually named for a real person, Thomas Crapper, who patented and manufactured a series of toilets.
Crapper the man was born in 1836 in Thorne, England. In 1866, he founded the esteemed company, Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd. The company made drains, pipes, manhole covers, and just about everything related to plumbing, including toilets (or water closets or loos in his home country). The company had showrooms for their wares, talked openly about bathrooms at a time when most others felt it improper, and even sold products that were used by the British royal family.
The slang word crapper seems to have been popularized in the United States by American soldiers returning from Europe after World War I. Fighting the Huns, the doughboys had used the ubiquitous toilets of Thomas Crapper & Co. These porcelain thrones were emblazoned with “Crapper” on the bowl, making for an easy reference. The use of the term quickly spread from there.
There is some debate about whether the word “crap” actually derives from crapper or whether that term preceded Thomas Crapper’s life work. Crap itself is a Middle English word that comes from the Dutch krappen (to cut off or separate) and the Old French crappe (waste or rejected matter). In English, the word referred to weeds, chaff, or other trash. According to the venerable Oxford English Dictionary, crap was first used to refer to a good ole’ poop in 1846, when Thomas Crapper was only ten years old. But there are others who insist that crap only took on its modern meaning as a derivation of crapper.
You might use all this information to impress your drinking buddies. Or, you can edify others on Thomas Crapper day, which occurs each January 27th on the anniversary of the inventor’s passing. Regardless, raise a glass to the crapper and its popularizer, Thomas Crapper.
