Potty Means a Child's Toilet or Slightly Mad
Potty is a child's chamber pot and also British slang for crazy. The two senses have no clear connection.
A potty is a small toilet for a young child, and in British English *potty* also means mildly crazy. The two are hard to connect. The bowl is a simple diminutive of *pot*; the crazy sense appears in Britain around 1920 and may come from an older use of *potty* meaning trivial or insignificant, as in *a potty little job*. *Potty about* means enthusiastically fond of something, a use that survives mainly in older British speech.
- A child's toilet. *Potty training.*
- Slightly mad (British). *Gone potty.*
- Trivial (British, dated). *A potty little rule.*
- Potty about — very fond of. *Potty about horses.*
- Pot — the base word. *A pot.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | potty | A potty. |
| Plural | potties | Potties. |
| Adjective | potty | Quite potty. |
| Compound | potty training | Potty training. |
| Base | pot | A pot. |
- We started potty training last week.Child.
- You must be potty.British slang.
- She is potty about gardening.Fondness.
British words for mildly mad
- Potty — gently absurd rather than alarming
- Barmy — from the froth on fermenting beer
- Bonkers — imitative, of a knock on the head
- Daft — once meant gentle or meek
- Round the bend — from the curved drives of Victorian asylums
A diminutive of *pot*, Old English *pott*. The sense of crazy appears in British English around 1920, origin uncertain.
Are the two senses of potty related?
Probably not. The bowl is a small pot; the crazy sense appears separately in Britain around 1920, perhaps from potty meaning trivial.
What does potty about mean?
Very keen on something. It is British and now sounds a little old-fashioned.