Garderobe

For the fictional academy, see List of My-Otome terminology#Garderobe.

File:Garderobe, Peveril Castle, Derbyshire.jpg

The garderobe at Peveril Castle, Derbyshire, England

In English a garderobe has come to mean a primitive toilet in a castle or other medieval building, usually a simple hole discharging to the outside. Such toilets were often placed inside a small chamber, leading by association to the use of the term garderobe to describe them. Depending on the structure of the building, garderobes could lead to cess pits or moats. Many can still be seen in Norman and medieval castles and fortifications. They became obsolete with the introduction of indoor plumbing.

According to the medieval architecture scholar, Frank Bottomley, garderobes were:

"Properly, not a latrine or privy but a small room or large cupboard, usually adjoining the chamber or solar and providing safe-keeping for valuable clothes and other possessions of price: cloth, jewels, spices, plate and money."

This definition is upheld by the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, which states that the word garderobe comes to us through Middle English originating from the Old French words garder (to watch, to guard) and robe (clothing). The entry provides three definitions for garderobe, the first being "a wardrobe or its contents", the second "a private room", and the third "[a] privy". A description of the garderobe at Donegal castle indicates that during the time when the castle garderobe was in use it was believed that ammonia was a disinfectant and that visitor's coats and cloaks were kept in the garderobe. In Danish, Dutch, German, and Spanish garderobe can mean a cloakroom. In Latvian it means checkroom.