Bidet – Where Does the Word Actually Come From?

The word sounds technical, almost medical – something you would find in a plumbing catalogue. It is the opposite: a joke about the position people sat in.

In French, a bidet is a small horse, a pony. The word comes from the Old French bider, to trot. When a low basin for washing intimate areas appeared in early eighteenth-century Paris, people sat astride it – one leg either side. The resemblance was obvious, and the name stuck. The earliest known written mention of it as a piece of furniture dates from 1710.

In German the stress falls on the last syllable, “bi-DEH,” and the final t stays silent. Because the spelling and the sound don't match, plenty of people type “Bidee” into a search box. They mean the same thing.

Other languages took the word and adapted it: bidè in Italy, bidé in Spain and Portugal. English keeps the French spelling and says “bih-DAY.” In Japan the function usually goes by Washlet – which is not a word but a brand name, introduced in 1980.

German never settled on a word of its own. “Sitzwaschbecken” existed, but it read like a catalogue entry and died accordingly.

“Bidet is English.”
No, French. English took it over unchanged.

“The word comes from bidon, the canister.”
No. It comes from bider, to trot – by way of the pony.

“A Washlet is something different from a bidet.”
It is a shower toilet, and Washlet is the brand name for one. Like Hoover for a vacuum cleaner.

“A butt shower isn't a bidet.”
It is the same function in a different design. You simply no longer sit astride it – which is why the pony comparison doesn't hold up any more.

A piece of furniture named after a pony, because that is how people sat on it. Knowing that also explains why the modern designs go by other names: the position that gave the thing its name is gone.