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From: lambert@boring.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.nlang
Subject: origin of "crap"
Message-ID: <6705@boring.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Dec-85 17:47:09 EST
Article-I.D.: boring.6705
Posted: Mon Dec  9 17:47:09 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Dec-85 03:46:17 EST
References: <521@klipper.UUCP> <76@nbs-amrf.UUCP> <226@argon.kcl-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: lambert@boring.UUCP (Lambert Meertens)
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 47
Xref: watmath net.followup:5521 net.nlang:3880
Apparently-To: rnews@mcvax.LOCAL

In article <226@argon.kcl-cs.UUCP> phil@argon.UUCP (Phil Thompson) writes:
> In article <76@nbs-amrf.UUCP> hopp@nbs-amrf.UUCP (Ted Hopp) writes:
>>> One question: The person who flamed me called my article "crap". [...]
>>> What does the word "crap" mean?
>> The word "crap" literally means "trash".  It has the additional connotation
>> of excrement or something equally unappealing.
> The origin of the word "crap" is Thomas Crapper. He invented the first
> flushing toilet. So "crap", if it means anything, means excrement.

I seem to remember that the first time I heard or read about Thomas Crapper
(I don't remember which, where and when; maybe Martin Gardner's column in
Scientific American?), it was presented as one in a series of hoaxes.
Since then, I have encountered several people who firmly believe in the
historical authenticity of this person, there apparently existing a
biography that even features a photograph of his store from which the
flushing toilet started its flush of victory.

However, several dictionaries give an etymology of crap as coming from
Middle English "crappe", meaning something like "useless residuals" and
stemming from or related to a now obsolete Middle Dutch word.  Others don't
have the word (in this meaning) at all.  None that I consulted mention one
Thomas Crapper.

I am quite confused now.  There seem to be at least the following
possibilities:

i)   The Thomas Crapper story is a clever hoax, including a faked biography.
ii)  Thomas Crapper did exist, but his name is an ironic play of fate (or
     maybe it predisposed him to make this particular invention:-).
iii) T.C. did exist and donated his name to the instrument used for the
     activity of excretion, and thereby, by back-formation, to "crap".
     The etymology in the dictionaries is false.
iv)  Although the etymology is not false, Crapper was instrumental in
     revitalizing a word on the verge of obsolescence and specializing
     its meaning to its current excremental connotation.

Who can shed light on this?  Of particular interest is evidence of T.C.'s
inventorship of the flushing toilet (such as a patent issued in his name;
but from an independent source, not from the biography).

By the way, did you know that "Flushing toilets" are called thus because
they were first produced and employed in Flushing?
-- 

     Lambert Meertens
     ...!{seismo,okstate,garfield,decvax,philabs}!lambert@mcvax.UUCP
     CWI (Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science), Amsterdam