During the reign of France’s Louis XIV, you could wear a commode on your head. Commode referred to a wire frame worn on the head to support an elaborate headdress. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Wearing a Commode on Your Head”
Grant, remember a few weeks ago when we were in Dallas doing a show and we had the Q&A part where somebody was talking about the term commode?
Oh, yes.
And the origin of that and how commode was a kind of cabinet and then you put your chamber pot in there, and then later that became applied to the commode in bathrooms, particularly in the seat itself.
Yes. Yes.
And somebody there mentioned that commode is also something you wear on your head.
Oh.
We both had that same reaction, but I looked into it, and indeed, a commode was the headdress worn in the 17th and 18th centuries by women at the court.
Oh, wow.
Yeah. And it was
It was like a wire structure that supported ribbons and hair and all this.
It was commodious.
Well, it was convenient.
Yeah.
It’s the idea of convenience.
It’s something that you could put on your head really quickly.
That’s funny because a bathroom can also be a convenience.
Indeed.
