different between commode vs thunderbox

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French commode (literally “convenience”). Doublet of comodo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??m??d/

Noun

commode (plural commodes)

1. A low chest of drawers on short legs.
2. A stand for a washbowl and jug.
3. (euphemistic) A chair containing a chamber pot.
4. (euphemistic) A toilet.
5. (historical) A kind of woman's headdress, raising the hair and fore part of the cap to a great height.
   • 1696, George Granville, The She-Gallants

     Now under high Commodes with Looks Erect,
     Bare-fac’d devours in gawdy Colours deck.

Synonyms

• (chamber pot): See Thesaurus:chamber pot
• (toilet): See Thesaurus:toilet

Related terms

• discommode, incommode
• bidet

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin commodus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?.m?d/

Adjective

commode (plural commodes)

1. convenient (of or pertaining to convenience; simple; easy; expedient)

Derived terms

• accommoder
• incommode
  • incommoder

Descendants

• ? German: kommod

Noun

commode f (plural commodes)

1. chest of drawers, commode, dresser
2. (Louisiana) toilet

Descendants

• ? Danish: kommode
• ? German: Kommode
• ? Italian: comodino
• ? Norwegian: kommode
• ? Swedish: kommod
• ? Persian: ???? (komod)

Further reading

• “commode” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Interlingua

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kom.mo.de/

Adjective

commode

1. comfortable

Latin

Etymology 1

Adverb

commod? (comparative commodius, superlative commodissim?)

1. conveniently
2. aptly, suitably

Etymology 2

Adjective

commode

1. vocative masculine singular of commodus

References

• commode in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• commode in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• commode in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from French commode.

Noun

commode f (plural commodes)

1. (Jersey) tallboy

English

Etymology

thunder +? box; in the sense of a toilet, presumed to be because of the noises that may be made while using it, especially while defecating.

Pronunciation

Noun

thunderbox (plural thunderboxes)

1. (historical) A close-stool, a stool enclosing a chamber pot.
2. (Britain, Australia, slang) An outhouse or latrine: a rudimentary outdoor toilet.
   • 1974 June 13, Donald Gould, "A Groundling?s Notebook: Ice Waterloo" in the New Scientist, page 708:

     Meantime the ICE experts are poring over their photographs, and making measurements, which, presumably, will go into a computer, and out will come the specification for the perfect thunderbox.

   • 1979, The Bulletin, Vol. 100, page 35:

     In the old days, when there was a corrugated iron thunderbox, the Holts? guests were told to approach it with caution: where other thunderboxes had redback spiders, the local ones tended to have taipans.

   • 2005, Benedict le Vay, Eccentric Britain, 2nd, page 57:

     He boobytrapped the ‘thunderbox’ and the next guardsman who sat down was met by a deafening blast. The guardsman and plastic loo seat were hurled one way, the loo paper another, but there were no injuries.
3. A box of metal balls used to create a thunder sound effect.

   Synonym: thunder run

   • 1991, Inger Mattsson, Gustavian opera (page 101)

     At a given signal they are allowed to drop to the floor with a crash, followed by loud peal of thunder from the thunderbox.

Synonyms

• (close-stool): commode; see also Thesaurus:chamber pot
• (outhouse): See Thesaurus:toilet and Thesaurus:bathroom