Potty = Chamber Pot

English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit] (Note: there is a second etymology, not included here.)

From pot (“chamberpot”) +‎ -y (“diminutive suffix”).

Noun[edit]

potty (plural potties)

1. A chamber pot used by young children while learning control of their bladder and bowels.  [quotations ▼]
   • 1940, William Carlos Williams, In the Money:

     If you just let him know you want him to go on the potty, or anything, he's miles away.

   • 1949, Edith Buxbaum, Your child makes sense: a guidebook for parents:

     Mothers very often make the baby and themselves unhappy by setting the child on the potty every hour.

2. (childish) A toilet bowl. Can be used as essentially a synonym of toilet or bathroom in some phrases, e.g. potty parity, porta-potty, potty humor.