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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :  
Click on link to "outhouse" in the above dictionary

  outhouse \out house`\, n.

   1. A small house or building at a little distance from the
        main house; an outbuilding.
   
  2. Especially: A small building with one or more seats and a
        pit underneath, intended for use as a toilet; a privy.
        
Selected Synonyms:   
backhouse, convenience, crapper, crib,
     earth closet, john, latrine, poubelle, privy, toilet room, water closet

To learn more about outhouses, past and present, click on The Outhouse

or visit The Outhouse Museum
 

"Little Privy on the Prairie":

Below is a photo of the original outhouse on my great-grandparents' (Henry and Josephine Nemmers Kokenge) farm, located midway between Alton and Granville, Iowa.  The Kokenge outhouse is quite sophisticated: it has a shingled, slanted roof, and it is a two-seater with a real window in its door (rather than a half-moon carved into the door).  Archaelogists of the future might gain many valuable insights into 19th-20th century United States life simply by excavating the sites of outhouses such as this one.

(Photograph by Suzanne Bunkers, 2001)

March 1884:  "Le préfet de la Seine, Eugène Poubelle, impose l'usage de réceptacles fermés destinés à recevoir les ordures ménagères dans toute la ville de Paris. Ces récipients prendront rapidement le nom de son inventeur."

La Poubelle is the French term for "the garbage chute" or "the wastebasket."  The term originated after Eugène Poubelle ordered that trash containers be set out on streets throughout Paris, beginning in March 1884.

In today's French parlance, "Trash Télévision" is often called "Télé poubelle"

With the advent of e-mail and the world wide web, individuals can send unwanted files to the trash (or recycle) bin and obnoxious messages to 'the junk mail file' to be deleted.  I especially enjoy participating in these activities in cyberspace.

 

When I was growing up in rural northwest Iowa, a standard Halloween trick involved hauling old outhouses from farms into town, where the outhouses would be exhibited in a line on Main Street.  Sometimes, outhouses would not be moved from farms; they would be tipped over instead.