Biffy Outhouse Origin

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Karen, and I’m calling from Tucson, Arizona.

Hi, Karen. Welcome to the show.

Oh, thank you.

My daughter and I were visiting a neighbor, and that neighbor had just come home from chaperoning a camp, a youth camp, and she had on her mantelpiece a plunger that was decorated with sparkles and jewels and ribbons and things like that.

And my daughter asked what that was about.

And my friend said that they had won the award for the cleanest Biffy.

And so we, of course, asked, what is a Biffy?

And our friend said that it was basically a glorified outhouse.

And then my daughter continued asking questions.

And my friend explained that the word Biffy stood for bathroom enforced for you.

And my suspicion radar went up.

I dotted that.

I went to the Internet, looked it up, couldn’t find anything to verify that.

So I thought I’d call the experts.

So this was like a summer camp then where they called the outdoor toilet the Biffy.

Yes.

Gotcha.

Martha, what do you think about that acronym?

Well, I think Karen is right on.

It sounds like you’ve been listening to enough episodes of the show that you know to be suspicious of acronymic etymologies.

Is that correct?

Yeah, it sounded pretty awkward, but I couldn’t find any information about it.

We can tell you unequivocally that it doesn’t mean bathroom in forest for you.

It doesn’t.

It does not.

Although that’s pretty clever.

I like that.

And different ideas have been proposed.

We’ve been asked before if it comes from BFI, which were the initials of a portable toilet company, Browning Ferris Industries, based in Houston.

But the problem here is that that company started in 1968, and we see the term Biffy used for outhouse at least 20, almost 30 years earlier than that.

And some people have suggested that maybe it ultimately comes from bivouac, you know, like military jargon, bivy meaning a small shelter.

But the truth is we don’t know.

Some people have suggested that maybe it’s a little kid’s pronunciation of bathroom or privy.

You’re absolutely right to be suspicious of that acronymic explanation.

What I’m suspicious of is this person actually was displaying the plunger on their mantle.

Proudly?

No, not proudly.

She was saying she didn’t know what to do with it.

But there was some talk of she’s supposed to bring it back next year.

And so what do we do with this thing?

That’s not really the Stanley cup you got there.

You don’t want to pass it from team to team.

It’s a Stanley rubber cup.

Right.

Stick it on the wall.

Martha, how far back does this go?

I think we both found those 1941 uses.

Right, right.

No earlier than that.

We just simply can’t find it any earlier than that.

I guess we should say congratulations to your friend for their award.

For making the award.

Absolutely.

I don’t know how you keep an outhouse, quote, unquote, clean, but, you know, I wasn’t there.

But these days it does tend to be associated with camps, summer camps, scouting camps, that sort of thing.

Sleepaway camps.

Okay.

All right, Karen.

Well, thank you so much for the question.

Take care now, Karen.

Oh, thank you.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, lay your linguistic traps for me and Martha.

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