purging place

English

Etymology

Originally as a calque or translation of various Latin or Spanish terms.[1]

Noun

purging place (plural purging places)

A place where purging occurs, particularly:
1. (premodern medicine, obsolete) A body part where excess humors are expelled.
  - c. 1425, translating Guy de Chauliac as The Grande Chirurgie, p. 154:
    An aposteme gendred in þe purgynge places [sc. Latin tribus emunctoriis], þat is to say, of þe brayne vnder þe eres, of þe herte vnder þe arme holes, of þe lyuer in the schares.
2. (obsolete) A place where the body is purged of waste: a latrine; an outhouse; a lavatory.
  - 1577, Edward Hellowes translating Antonio de Guevara as Chronicles, p. 29:
    He buylt in all streetes in Rome publique purging places [sc. Spanish latrinas publicas].
3. (Christianity, now rare) The place where the soul is purged of sin: Purgatory.
  - 1603, Elizabeth Melville, Ane Godlie Dreame, l. 262:
    Is this, said I, the Papist s purging place?

Synonyms

(toilet facilities): See Thesaurus:bathroom

Hypernyms

place; see also Thesaurus:bathroom

References

"purging, n." in the Oxford English Dictionary (2007), Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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