Debate: Lounge language

I lived near Freedom Park in Plymouth during the 60s we had at the back a bathroom then the kitchen (where we ate) next to that the breakfast room (where we relaxed and watched tv) then the sitting room where we went if we had friends in to visit then we had the front room where we seldom went because my mother wanted to keep it as new , when we sat in there the settee was covered with a cloth and if we did go in my mum would say "what are you doing in here" my mum was born in Notting Hill Gate everyone of the family of 9 lived and slept in the same room . when I moved to Scotland my wife lived in a Butt n Ben

I agree on the whole.

As far as I am concerned, it is the drawing room, to distinguish it from the morning room and the dining room.

I suppose I sometimes refer to them by the general colour of their decoration and furnishings. Thus, 'red' room, 'blue' room, etc..

We do not possess a 'lounge', 'parlour', 'living room', etc., though we do have a 'study'.

I think you're wrong. In Victorian times, the upper classes would entertain in the dining room. Afterwards the ladies would "withdraw", to the withdrawing room, to allow the men to do whatever it was that Victorian men did when their women were absent.
This was abreviated over time to the drawing room, which we use today, although I'm not sure how many of us have such a thing. I know I don't, and wouldn't know what to do with it if I did. Go into it with my wife after dinner probably!

Nick P

I was brought up to say 'napkin'. To me if cloth rather than paper is used it can only be a 'napkin'; a curious combination of the french nappe (tablecloth) and -kin (old english diminutive).

A 'serviette' is an alternative word for a 'paper napkin' to me. I do not recall hearing the word until the 1970s

Toilet is not posh (especially when pronounced "toy-lit"). Lavatory or loo is better but never ever little girls room!

Wasn't toilet originally just a room in which to wash - to faire son toilette, as the French have it? What I'd been told was that in the original days of first class rail travel, there was a lavatory and a toilet room on each carriage; when the two were merged to save space, the toilet sign was the one which was kept, presumably to allow people to claim they had merely been to wash their hands...

In my flat, the kitchen is at the front, living room at the back, bedroom at the front too.
I guess I mostly use living room for the room in my home where I live, eat, watch TV and use my computer. I have used the term lounge before, until someone questioned me on that -- I think it was an American, who only thought of lounge in terms of a departure lounge or hotel lounge. I think that any of the 3 terms can be used, but I hear living room the most often.

Ours was the 'front room' too (Notts/Lincs border) although our house was sideways on to the road. Older people sometimes said 'best room'. It was only used on grand occasions. Later, I spent some years in a cottage with both main rooms at the front, so it was the 'sitting room'.

The 'lav' or 'lavvy' was round the side of the house, but school had 'toilets'. The history of the word for this 'smallest room',to use one rather coy expression, is fascinating. As a word becomes thought to be too closely connected with the business of getting rid of our waste products, another word or nickname is invented, or an existing word gets a new meaning, to replace it. Our word 'lavatory' was a mediaeval term for a washing-place, particularly in a monastery. When that got too many unpleasant associations, people who wanted to sound more refined moved 'toilet' over from its earlier meaning of 'dressing-table' - this can cause some confusion when reading books from earlier centuries, like a line in a poem by Pope, in the earlier eighteenth century, describing a rich girl's very classy bedroom and her layout of make-up:
'And now unveiled the toilet stands displayed'!
There are some remarkably coy expressions today; American use of 'bathroom' can cause misunderstandings.

What about 'non-water-closet' internal sanitary arrangements of the relatively recent past, e.g. the thing under the bed - a 'jerry' or 'guzunder' (presumably because it goes under the bed)? In Shakespeare's time it was a 'jordan', probably from references to the River Jordan in the Bible.
Diana

You will only find a lounge in a hotel.
A living room will be found in your home.

If anyone is interested, you will only find a sink in the kitchen and/or utility, and a basin in the bathroom/toilet.

In Britain, napkins are used by diners in the dining room,(however, napkins are something entirely different in the USA)and serviettes are used by waiters.

...and, for ladies only - hats should never be worn after the cocktail hour.

Sue