I wonder how "going to the bathroom" came to be the standard American euphemism for�well, you know. Surely our ancestors didn't say "go to the bathroom" back before indoor plumbing became the norm. So what did they say? "Go to the outhouse," I suppose. Does anyone know for sure?

I suspect they simply didn't mention it, at least not in anything resembling polite company. I'm sure they had their own sets of vulgar terms, as we do, that didn't directly refer to the plumbing or lack thereof (like our "powder my nose").