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I'm after a particular slang term for 'toilet' in German but I'm not sure of the spelling of it. I think it's Scheißehaus. If this is the correct term, should it be written as one word, two words or hyphenated? Also, should the 's' in 'Scheiße' and/or 'h' in 'haus' be in upper case, or lower case?

(If 'Scheißehaus' isn't the term I'm after, any ideas on what the correct term is?)

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  • 5
    Besides, do you know about German compounds? We put words together (to one word), only the first letter of a noun is upper case (of course), and we only hyphenate if it's necessary for better readability. – Em1 Aug 30 '12 at 8:32
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    Besides, the "Scheißhaus" is not neccessarily just the toilet itself, but the hole room, or, if the building contains just the toilet, the whole building. German slang would be "Kackstuhl", or "Lokus", if you'd solely wanted to refer to the toilet itself. – TheBlastOne Oct 1 '12 at 11:27
  • @TheBlastOne: You can use 'toilet' for the room or building in English, too. – Tara B Feb 17 '13 at 12:27
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    Scheißhaus is not just slang, but vulgar slang. Just FYI. – user22484 Mar 15 '17 at 20:13
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It’s Scheißhaus. It’s a composition of the verb scheißen (not the noun Scheiße) and the noun Haus.

See this or this for more details.

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  • I could, however, imagine a house used to contain fascies, making that one the "Scheißehaus", with the "e" because the noun "Scheiße" composed the word. That would, however, be not the toilet, but a storage building, so: yes, +1. – TheBlastOne Oct 1 '12 at 11:24
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I am German, and I've never heard this. People will understand "Scheißhaus" - just like "Kackstuhl", but it is very unusual.

You usually say "Toilette" or "WC".

By the way, it is very common to combine "Scheiß" with something that makes you angry.

Example 1: As you want to open a window, it sticks. You can't open it and get angry. Then you could shout "Scheiß Haus!" (spoken quickly, so it sounds like "Scheißhaus")

Example 2: As you want to go to work, your car doesn't start. You might shout "Scheiß Karre!"

Example 3: As you want to store your thesis, the computer crashes. You shout "Scheiß Computer!"

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    You never heard this? I heard it a lot (colloquially, of course). Maybe it's only used regionally. I'm from Bavaria, btw. – nwellnhof Feb 25 '13 at 23:50
  • I'm from Bavaria, too :-) ... Well, I guess I could have heard this when people spoke about Dixi-toilets, but I'm not sure about it. – Martin Thoma Feb 26 '13 at 8:00
  • Möglicherweise bekannteste (zumindest für uns im Norden, mein österreichischer Kollege hat den Film auch nie gesehen) Verwendung: youtube.com/watch?v=5fAT5P_UeJs&t=2m11s (Werner - Beinhart, Szene im Krankenhaus) – Raketenolli Jul 16 '17 at 19:17
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Yes, it is spelled correctly.

German is often very literal and spelling is quite often (especially with compound nouns) linked to the meaning of the word.

As a native speaker I understand this kind of words like a combination of what you use a thing for (or what it does, or what you do to / with it) and what kind of it is itself. This - very literal - type of words is quite common and special thing to the German language.

For Example:

  • Flugzeug (Aircraft): Flug- (derived from fliegen, to fly) -zeug (gear) = flying-gear

  • Druckmaschine (printing press): Druck- (derived from drucken, to print) -maschine (machine) = printing-machine

  • Schiebetür (sliding door): Schiebe- (from schieben, to push forward) -tür (door) = pushing-(/sliding-)door

The Scheißhaus is spelled Scheißhaus because it is literally a (okay, more or less) 'house' to have a shit in - and the reason for some germans to somewhat ironically use this word, or the also popular "Kackstuhl", to describe a toilet maybe lies in that ludicrous literal way of describing things that makes you giggle.

Remember: These metaphors are colloquial, sloppy, and bad taste. So maybe don't use them.

The the metaphors are brilliant though. Even five years later.

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  • You want to re-read the word again before saying the spelling is correct. – tofro Jul 15 '17 at 8:34
  • @tofro, I agree, but to be fair, the title differed from the question in the body when he answered. – Carsten S Jul 15 '17 at 9:07

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