The reason we don t say "toilet" (as I may have noted years ago) is that in the US has come to mean, specifically and unambiguously, the porcelain fixture used for defecation, etc., and not the room.

The OED seems not to realize just how fully synonymous in the US are "toilet" and "lavatory bowl or pedestal" (as they so prudishly phrase it). When I was a lad, the Palmolive company still advertised "toilet soap" on TV. For your complexion! If you were five, it was beyond hilarious!

Eventually they got wise.

Americans do not call a "rest room" a "toilet," because "I need to use the toilet" is a bit too graphic for most of us. Hence the desperate need for a euphemism.

"Dang" has been around forever. Submitted for your approval, from Thomas Morton's West-Country comedy smash, "Speed the Plough" (1800):


"ASHFIELD. Dang it, I ha' gotten it all in my head; but zomehow--I can't talk it. ... Dang it! never be down hearted. I do know as well as can be, zome good luck will turn up."



(Pedants will note "gotten." Others may remember Roger Miller's 1964 CW hit, "Dang me!")