Dunny

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is uncategorized.

Please help improve this article by adding it to one or more categories, so it may be associated with related articles (how?). Please remove this tag after categorizing, but not before.
This page has been tagged since February 2007.

This article is about the Australian colloquial word for a toilet, and for the American slang usage of 'dunny' and 'dunn.' For the Age from the fictional Myst franchise, see D'ni.

Dunny is Australian slang for toilet, either the room or the specific fixture, especially an Outhouse, portacabin or other outdoor toilets. It is often used to specify a distinction between a flushing toilet and a non-flushing toilet (e.g., a longdrop). The word is believed to be derived from the much older 'dunnakin' (also spelled 'dunnigin'), but the origin of these terms is much older and remains unknown.

In New Zealand a Dunny is a portable toilet. These are seen on construction sites as well as events. If serviced weekly one Dunny per every 10 workers will be needed in order to meet health standards (asuming a 40 hour work week). For events the process of calculating the number of Dunny's required is a complicated task. It depends on the number of people attending, the period of the event, what type of food and drink will be served, the ratio of men to woman, the ratio of children, and even the climate. Often the event organisers will order less that the number required to cut costs, this will usally give the Dunny a bad name because if over used they will become unpleasent to use.

Traditionally, dunnies were found in unsewered areas, and consisted of little more than a seat placed over a can (or "dunny-can") or deep hole (or cesspit). The latter variation can be referred to more specifically as a longdrop. Dunnies were maintained at some distance from houses for obvious reasons of smell and hygiene. The sheds themselves were generally made of either wood or corrugated iron, to facilitate the moving of the dunny if required (for example, if the hole in the longdrop was filled up).

Norman Park, like many areas of Brisbane, was unsewered until the late 1960s, with each house having an outhouse or "dunny" in the back yard

By the middle of the twentieth century, dunnies had become much less common as modern plumbing diminished the need to keep toilets at a distance from the house. Nevertheless even some large cities, such as Brisbane, had unsewered suburbs where residences required dunnies into the early 1970s.

In built up areas it was unhygienic to rely on cesspits and the usual arrangement was for waste to be collected in a can placed under the dunny. The cans would be collected, emptied, washed and replaced weekly by contractors hired by the local city or town council.

In modern times, many dunnies on old houses remain in use, but have been refitted with modern plumbing and flushing toilets. They are also used in areas too remote to justify the expense of pumping water and sewage piping to, but where there is a need for toilet facilities, such as at remote campsites or along walking tracks. Farmers and station owners sometimes also construct dunnies in remote but often used fields.

In the United States, the word dunny has become an obscure relic of 1990s New York City slang and pre-crunk ebonics. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1998) defines a dunny as one who is "deaf, stupid." However, the slang usage means just the opposite, and both it and its shortened form, 'dunn,' are used as terms of endearment. The use of the words 'dunny' and 'dun' were popularized in New York and beyond by several New York rappers in the 1990s, including the Queens duo Mobb Deep, who in their hit single Quiet Storm use the word 'dun' on at least one occasion (derrived from replacing the 's' in certain words with 'd' for effect; for instance, 'dan dolo' is a reference to the Star Wars character Han Solo).