# bath tissues



## meijin

Hi, if I go to the US and ask "Excuse me, where can I find _bath tissues_ (or _bathroom tissues_)?" in a grocery store, will I get a strange look (even in the US)? Is it because people usually don't use this expression in such a situation?


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## The Newt

Do you mean Kleenex or toilet paper?


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## meijin

Doesn't "bathroom tissue" mean the same as "toilet paper" in the US?


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## The Newt

meijin said:


> Doesn't "bathroom tissue" mean the same as "toilet paper" in the US?


The usual phrase is "toilet paper." "Bathroom tissue" is something marketers use as a euphemism. To me "tissues" means Kleenex (which is a brand name, but often used generically). I can't really imagine someone saying "we're out of bathroom tissues."


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## kentix

Yes, you'd do much better to ask for toilet paper.


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## Myridon

The Newt said:


> To me "tissues" means Kleenex (which is a brand name, but often used generically). I can't really imagine someone saying "we're out of bathroom tissues."


... and the box of Kleenex says "facial tissues" on it, but no one will ask you for a facial tissue.


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## zaffy

The Newt said:


> The usual phrase is "toilet paper."


But if the context is clear, you say just "paper", right? Say, a child is taking a poo in the bathroom and yells out: 

_Mummy, there is no paper. Can you bring some? _


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## meijin

Thanks all for the help. I was reading the following thread (not from WR) earlier today. So, you know, I thought you AmE speakers use the expression "bath(room) tissue" in certain contexts.

_"LOL - "Toilet paper" is what you say to your family. "Bath tissue" is what you say to strangers._

_They are the same things - but Americans in particular have an aversion to the word "toilet" so we come up with silly ways to describe things sometimes."_
Bath Tissue, Toilet Paper?


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## Myridon

zaffy said:


> But if the context is clear, you say just "paper", right? Say, a child is taking a poo in the bathroom and yells out:
> 
> _Mummy, there is no paper. Can you bring some? _


You could but it's not likely.  Saying "toilet" is no effort at all.  I might be tempted to answer "Do you want the front page or the funny papers?" as if the child were asking about a newspaper.


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## Rover_KE

... and use that as an opportunity to teach your child an important life lesson: always make sure there's paper handy *before* you sit down to do the business.


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## kentix

I would always say there's no toilet paper.


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## kentix

I can't imagine a realistic situation where an average person would say bathroom tissue (bath tissue would imply something you use in a bathtub).

Even in a public restroom I would refer to it as toilet paper.

"By the way, the men's bathroom needs more toilet paper."


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## The Newt

meijin said:


> Thanks all for the help. I was reading the following thread (not from WR) earlier today. So, you know, I thought you AmE speakers use the expression "bath(room) tissue" in certain contexts.
> 
> _"LOL - "Toilet paper" is what you say to your family. "Bath tissue" is what you say to strangers.
> 
> They are the same things - but Americans in particular have an aversion to the word "toilet" so we come up with silly ways to describe things sometimes."_
> Bath Tissue, Toilet Paper?


No, that's not correct. The everyday term is toilet paper.


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## meijin

The Newt said:


> The everyday term is toilet paper.





kentix said:


> Even in a public restroom I would refer to it as toilet paper.
> 
> "By the way, the men's bathroom needs more toilet paper."


What about "By the way, the men's bathroom needs more toilet *rolls*"?


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## Myridon

meijin said:


> What about "By the way, the men's bathroom needs more toilet *rolls*"?


No. Why would you want to roll a toilet?  You could say "I need three rolls of toilet paper for the men's room."  It's the British that like to talk about "loo roll."


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## meijin

Yes, I'm familiar with the expressions "loo roll" and "toilet roll" used by BrE speakers, and I'm really surprised that "toilet roll" doesn't work in AmE!!


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## Myridon

meijin said:


> Yes, I'm familiar with the expressions "loo roll" and "toilet roll" used by BrE speakers, and I'm really surprised that "toilet roll" doesn't work in AmE!!


It seems very odd to us to call something by its container.  I'm going to start sending my empty toilet paper rolls* over there because I hear they use a lot of them. They also use it uncountably so it's like "pass me some kleenex box" instead of "pass me a kleenex." 
(*Note that we don't even call the empty rolls "toilet rolls" - that's some sort of high-fiber bread bun, isn't it?)


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## The Newt

meijin said:


> Yes, I'm familiar with the expressions "loo roll" and "toilet roll" used by BrE speakers, and I'm really surprised that "toilet roll" doesn't work in AmE!!


I think we would get the point, even if we don't use it (often).


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## JulianStuart

Myridon said:


> It seems very odd to us to call something by its container.


About as "odd" as calling the place where it is used a "restroom" 

There's not much difference between AE and BE with respect to the frequency of use of "toilet paper" (and bathroom tissue is barely visible - similar to bath tissue, not shown) in the Ngram graph.
(I have heard simple "TP" as a short/euphemism version of toilet paper but my favourite is one I learnt from an Aussie "PT" = poo tickets  )


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## Hermione Golightly

I am regressing as I age and from time to time do run out of toilet paper which I call loo paper, so I yell to my husband to please bring some loo paper. I'd be vastly surprised if he handed me a few sheets and not a roll or two.


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## Myridon

JulianStuart said:


> About as "odd" as calling the place where it is used a "restroom"


A restroom is a room and I rest in there quite a bit.  Toilet paper is not a roll.  When the loo roll is gone, you still have the roll.


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## JulianStuart

Myridon said:


> A restroom is a room and I rest in there quite a bit.


If that's the "justification" then the _roll_ is what you use in the _loo_.  I don't see anything odd about that collocation.


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## Myridon

JulianStuart said:


> If that's the "justification" then the _roll_ is what you use in the _loo_.  I don't see anything odd about that collocation.


But you don't use the roll. You take paper off the roll and use the paper. You throw the roll away when the paper is gone.
Toilet paper roll.  Roll of toilet paper.


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## USMeg

In the US, if you are asking an employee, you'd ask about _toilet paper_.
Note that the hanging aisle signs (that list what is to be found in a given aisle) are going to say _bath tissue_.
I talk about a _roll of toilet paper,_ but not a _toilet roll_.
It's just a matter of convention, y'all.


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## JulianStuart

USMeg said:


> It's just a matter of convention, y'all.



And, of course, they frequently differ between AE and BE, nothing new here


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## meijin

Myridon said:


> But you don't use the roll. You take paper off the roll and use the paper. You throw the roll away when the paper is gone.
> Toilet paper roll.  Roll of toilet paper.
> View attachment 60689


Isn't the one on the left a "toilet paper _tube"_?


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## Myridon

meijin said:


> Isn't the one on the left a "toilet paper _tube"_?


Things can have more than one name.


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## Keith Bradford

Myridon said:


> It seems very odd to us to call something by its container. ...


It's not a container, it's a shape.  Like a makeup remover *pad *or a lip*stick*. Don't make us Brits out to be crazier than we are!


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## JulianStuart

Myridon said:


> Things can have more than one name.


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## meijin

Keith Bradford said:


> It's not a container, it's a shape.


 I felt exactly the same.


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## Myridon

Keith Bradford said:


> It's not a container, it's a shape.  Like a makeup remover *pad *or a lip*stick*. Don't make us Brits out to be crazier than we are!


So the thing on the left in #23 is not actually a concrete object - it's just a shape.
No, never mind that.
What is loo roll when it's not in that shape? Is a crumb of bread still a loaf?


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## ewie

Left: an empty toilet roll _or _a toilet roll tube. Right: a toilet roll. It all makes _perfect_ sense.


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## dojibear

"A roll of toilet paper" (AE) is the item in the right-hand picture in post #32.


meijin said:


> _LOL - "Toilet paper" is what you say to your family. "Bath tissue" is what you say to strangers.
> 
> They are the same things - but Americans in particular have an aversion to the word "toilet" so we come up with silly ways to describe things sometimes."_


I disagree. Nobody says "bath tissue" (or avoids the word "toilet") in normal conversation. But stores say it. My package of twelve rolls of toilet paper is labelled "bath tissue".

There is a euphemism used when one needs to use the toilet. We don't say we need to "use the toilet". We say "go to the bathroom" (private home) or "go to the restroom" (public). Similar euphemisms are used in some other languages (Chinese: "go to the hand wash room").


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## Keith Bradford

Myridon said:


> ...
> What is loo roll when it's not in that shape? ...


You can buy loo paper in flat square packs, if that is your delight.  It would then be *a pack* of loo/toilet/lavatory paper.


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## JulianStuart

dojibear said:


> "A roll of toilet paper" (AE) is the item in the right-hand picture in post #32.
> 
> I disagree. Nobody says "bath tissue" (or avoids the word "toilet") in normal conversation. But stores say it. My package of twelve rolls of toilet paper is labelled "bath tissue".
> 
> There is a euphemism used when one needs to use the toilet. We don't say we need to "use the toilet". We say "go to the bathroom" (private home) or "go to the restroom" (public). Similar euphemisms are used in some other languages (Chinese: "go to the hand wash room").


Body function words are littered with euphemisms and they differ around the globe.  In BE toilet (or loo) is the _room_ while in AE it is the _thing_ you sit on.  The "handwash room" shows up in Japanese too and is similar to the "lavatory" in BE  as in "Please teacher, I need to go to the lavatory" while in AE a lavatory is (usually) a small sink for, ahem, washing hands.  In BE a lavatory may or may not have a little sink and a bathroom may not have a toilet. etc 
 A common, non-euphemistic terms for everyone seems to be toilet paper.


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## Myridon

Keith Bradford said:


> You can buy loo paper in flat square packs, if that is your delight.  It would then be *a pack* of loo/toilet/lavatory paper.


I was really more referring to when you remove a few sheets from the roll.  Those sheets do not have the shape "roll".


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## dojibear

Most rolls are perforated (separated into individual rectangles by perforations). When a single piece is separated along the performations, it is "a square of toilet paper", even though it is a rectangle. Or it is a "piece of toilet paper".


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## ewie

JulianStuart said:


> In BE toilet (or loo) is the _room_ while in AE it is the _thing_ you sit on.


 In BE _toilet_ is both the room and the thing you sit on.
(I long ago lost count of the times we've been through all this.)


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## Tegs

I'm really surprised to discover "toilet roll" is not a term that makes much sense to Americans, and that it isn't used in AE. We live and learn


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## elroy

zaffy said:


> But if the context is clear, you say just "paper", right? Say, a child is taking a poo in the bathroom and yells out:
> 
> _Mummy, there is no paper. Can you bring some? _


I would never just say "paper": it's always "toilet paper."


meijin said:


> Thanks all for the help. I was reading the following thread (not from WR) earlier today. So, you know, I thought you AmE speakers use the expression "bath(room) tissue" in certain contexts.
> 
> _"LOL - "Toilet paper" is what you say to your family. "Bath tissue" is what you say to strangers.
> 
> They are the same things - but Americans in particular have an aversion to the word "toilet" so we come up with silly ways to describe things sometimes."_
> Bath Tissue, Toilet Paper?


I don't agree.  As others have said, in speech it's always "toilet paper."


Myridon said:


> But you don't use the roll. You take paper off the roll and use the paper. You throw the roll away when the paper is gone.


For me, the whole thing is a "roll" of toilet paper. 
roll of toilet paper = toilet paper in rolled form


Tegs said:


> I'm really surprised to discover "toilet roll" is not a term that makes much sense to Americans, and that it isn't used in AE.


It makes sense; it's just not used.  It's "roll of toilet paper" or "toilet paper roll."  You elide "paper" because it's understood, I guess.


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## ewie

More on this entrancing subject: British English for toilet paper


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## sdgraham

U.S.-based Costco labels its TP "Bath tissue" (NOT "tissues,"), at least in its U.S. stores (called "warehouses,") but I distinctly remember early in the Covid pandemic, hand-scrawled signs at the entrance saying : "we are out of toilet paper."


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## PaulQ

Myridon said:


> It seems very odd to us to call something by its container.


Yes, I can see how that might happen in America...


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## Northern Monkey

ewie said:


> In BE _toilet_ is both the room and the thing you sit on.
> (I long ago lost count of the times we've been through all this.)


Unless you are using the bath or shower which is in the bathroom. In which case you'd never refer to that as going to the toilet.


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## JulianStuart

Northern Monkey said:


> Unless you are using the bath or shower which is in the bathroom. In which case you'd never refer to that as going to the toilet.


But then you are in the bathroom, another well-known euphemism that can mean more than one thing, and in AE "going to the bathroom" means, well what you need toilet paper for.  Are we circling the drain?


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## USMeg

JulianStuart said:


> Are we circling the drain?


If that means we are just about "done" then I DEARLY hope so.


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## meijin

sdgraham said:


> U.S.-based Costco labels its TP "Bath tissue" (NOT "tissues,"),


Their list of categories says "Bath Tissues", so I suppose each bag/box/pack/roll of toilet paper can be considered "a bath tissue" depending on the context. 

Costco Business Center


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## PaulQ

meijin said:


> Their list of categories says "Bath Tissues"


You may have misunderstood - "Bath Tissues", to me = varieties of Bath Tissue from different producers - In BE, that would be "toilet rolls".


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## meijin

PaulQ said:


> You may have misunderstood - "Bath Tissues", to me = varieties of Bath Tissue from different producers


You're right, Paul.


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## USMeg

PaulQ said:


> You may have misunderstood - "Bath Tissues", to me = varieties of Bath Tissue from different producers - In BE, that would be "toilet rolls".


Yes. Northern makes _a_ bath tissue, and Kirkland makes _a _bath tissue, and Charmin makes _a _bath tissue.
BUT when I google "costco bath tissue" the results returned say "toilet paper".


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## heypresto

Nobody has yet mentioned bog roll, so I though I'd better.


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## Hermione Golightly

Bravo! I wholeheartedly applaud your daring spirit.


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