shower room

As a child, my family called a shower room or bathroom as zang5êg8 bêⁿ5 漴浴棚 and nowadays a shower room or bathroom is called 洗浴間 soi2êg8goiⁿ1.

What is a bêⁿ5? A bêⁿ5 is a shed, a temporary building outside one’s main house. For example, hi3bêⁿ5 戲棚 where actors change when they come to village to do a performance.

How about zang5? Zang5 means to splash and this word is used when people rinse cooked vegetables under a tap.

In previous times, our ancestors would have taken a shower in a shed outside the main building where they would literally pour water over their bodies with a bucket and thus they called that shower shed 漴浴棚 zang5êg8 bêⁿ5. If you were to watch ancient dramas, you might still see such setting.

洗浴間 soi2êg8goiⁿ1