Whilst many experts disagree, local linguist and attendant at the public conveniences in Liebig Street, Naom Fustaigne, claims that William Shakespeare worked for many years as a toilet attendant and used a lot of toilet language in his plays.
He claims, for example, that the most famous line in all of Shakespeare, ‘pish and nonsense!’ is derived from an olde English phrase describing what a toilet attendant has to listen to all day. Nowadays of course, the phrase is usually used to describe what appears in the media.
Other phrases that Fustaigne cites as evidence for his theory include:
Pissed as a fart: from the 14th century (origins in the nether regions) pfart, a postilion, coach driver or airline pilot; often a target for Shakespeare’s bawdy humour; ‘Lady Macbeth is as pissed as a fart, my liege.’
Pissed off: A theatre goer who gets up to go to the toilet only five minutes after the second drinks interval in King Lear is said to have ‘pissed off’ all the other people in the row.
Taking the piss: carrying something, such as a joke, too far. ‘Verily, I fear Donald Trump may be taking the piss out of all of us, sire’.
