Other forms: urinals
A urinal is a fitting in a lavatory for men to pass water into. A row of urinals.
It saves water and space, which is why public buildings have them at all. The older sense was a glass vessel used to examine urine, which doctors did for centuries.
1nounurinalA fitting in a lavatory for men to pass water into.
“The urinal in the corner had not worked since the war.”
urinal is a fitting.
Latin urinalis, from urina, meant relating to urine; the English word named a glass vessel for examining it long before it named a plumbing fitting.
Latin
ūrīnālis — urinary
Old French
urinal
Middle English
urinal
English, today
urinal
Built from
From Middle English urinal, urynal, orynal, from Old French urinal, orinal (“vessel for urination”), from Latin ūrīnālis (“urinary”). Use for plumbing fixtures attested from 1851.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA