necessary

1) A useful or necessary house, commonly a privy or toilet, abbreviated by dialect speakers who refer to it as the 'nessy'.

1717 order that a necessary house be built in some convenient place, York

1743 pulled down a necessary house next the town gate, Gargrave

1788 A Boy about 12 years old ... hang’d Himself in the necessary House, Slaithwaite. In July 1785, an Ovenden farmer was in the lathe Croft Cleaning the Necessaries, and in August 1815 he was paid 2s for Thatching Jos Blagbrough’s Necessary. The OED evidence dates from 1609 but the word has a much longer history: 1413-4 ‘for one iron bar purchased from Robert Smyth for the door of the privy’, Selby.

spellings neccessary house
dates 1413-1414 1717 1743 1785 1788 1815

Related Content Loading...

Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0