Warum Stuhlgang „Stuhl“ genannt wird: Etymologie und Bedeutung

“Stool” for feces derives from Old English stol (“seat, chair, throne”). Originally, a close-stool was a box-seat with a chamber pot underneath used by royalty and wealthy. The waste collected in the pot was called “the stool.”

Over time, the metonymy shifted: the seat → the container → the contents. By the 16th century, “stool” meant the evacuation itself. The term persists in medical usage (stool sample, stool softener) as a clinical, non-vulgar term.

Related: “chair” and “stool” share the same Germanic root (*stōlaz).