thunder mug
- noun
- /ˈθʌndər mʌg/
- NSFW
:
orinal
- Before the advent of indoor plumbing, people often kept a thunder mug next to their beds for nighttime use.
Examples
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My grandmother told stories about using a thunder mug when she was young, long before toilets became standard.
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In old houses, it was common to find a thunder mug under the bed for urgent needs during the night.
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Piss pots and thunder mugs!
Synonyms
85
1.1
A small toilet that young children use while learning
1
9.7
A bowl kept in a bedroom to use as a toilet at night
Surface Forms
Morphology
thunder + mug
Knowing 'thunder' (storm sound) and 'mug' (drinking vessel) does not transparently yield the meaning 'chamber pot'; the compound's referent is idiomatic, historical/dialectal usage rather than a predictable composition of the parts. This sense is metaphorical/lexicalized and uncommon, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents but has not seen the expression would not be able to deduce its meaning.
Etymology
Thunder mug may come from a simple picture: people kept a small pot by the bed and when it was emptied outside at night it sometimes made a loud, thunder-like sound, so the pot was called a thunder mug. That's why thunder mug means 'a portable container kept in the bedroom for toilet use' before indoor plumbing.