Flush toilet different from Water closet
Etymology
Water closet
The word "toilet" initially meant "wash-room", without reference to sanitary facilities. Early indoor toilets were known as garderobes because they were used to store clothes, as the smell of ammonia was found to deter fleas and moths. However, an outhouse was usual until the nineteenth century, and only a few wealthy houses and luxury hotels had indoor toilets connected to drains and sewers. Lidded "chamber pots", kept in specially designed bedside cabinets and used in bedrooms by ladies and invalids, and portable bathtubs, could be emptied and washed in an outhouse.
From the sixteenth century in England, a private room (a closet) with a flushing toilet was referred to as a Water Closet ("WC"), in contrast with an Earth Closet ("EC"), an abbreviation still used in 1960s Oxfordshire cottage sales.The descriptive terms "wash-down closet" or "water closet" only reached the United States in the 1880s. By 1890 there was increased public awareness of disease and of carelessly disposed human waste being infectious.In common North American usage, a "bathroom" now invariably contains a toilet, but not usually a bath, to the confusion of foreigners. In the UK, Australia and NZ, "bathroom" or bath-room refers to a room with a fixed bathtub and not necessarily a toilet. The terms "bathroom", and "toilet" or "loo" (amongst other euphemisms) indicate distinct functions, although bathrooms may often include toilets.
The term "water closet", refers to a room that has both a toilet and other plumbing fixtures such as a sink or a bathtub. American plumbers and codes use the term "water closet" or "WC" to differentiate toilets from urinals.
Many European languages refer to a toilet as a "water" or "WC". The Royal Spanish Academy Dictionary accepts "váter" as a name for a toilet or bathroom, which is derived from the British term "water closet". France uses the expressions aller aux waters ("to go to the waters") derived from "water closet", and "w.-c." pronounced [ve.se]. Likewise the Romanian word "veceu" pronounced [vetʃeu], and the Finnish word "vessa" pronounced [ˈʋesːɑ] derive from a shortened version of the abbreviation. In German, the expression "Klo" (first syllable of "Klosett") is used alongside "WC". In Italian WC pronounced [vutˈtʃi] or Italian pronunciation: [vitˈtʃi], and "water" Italian pronunciation: [ˈvaːter], are very common terms to refer to the flushing toilet.