Roman shower

English

Etymology

Sense 2: From the supposed vomitorium of the Romans; compare brown shower, golden shower.

Pronunciation

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Noun

Roman shower (plural Roman showers)

1. A shower stall that is not enclosed by a door or shower curtain.
   • 1922, Margaret Penrose, The Radio Girls on Station Island, or The Wireless from the Steam Yacht‎^[1], New York: Cupples & Leon Company, page 147:

     She had a really wonderful suite at the Hackle Island Hotel, for she had furnished it herself and came here every year, she told her young visitors. There was a lovely big bath room with both a tub and a Roman shower.

   • 2006, Lynn A. Levine, Frommer’s Turkey‎^[2], 4th edition, Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, →ISBN, page 48:

     Another standard characteristic of hotels rated three stars or lower (Turkish rating) is the “Roman shower”—essentially a showerhead on the wall and a drain in the floor.

   • 2016, Avery Flynn, Bullet Proof‎^[3], Evil Eye Concepts, →ISBN, page 41:

     There wasn’t an inner wall in the huge space with its cathedral ceiling, except the oversized bathroom with its Roman shower and giant tub big enough for him to soak in after a brutal workout.

2. (slang) A fetishistic sexual act in which one participant vomits on another.

   Synonym: rainbow shower

   • 1999, Shawna Kenney, I Was a Teenage Dominatrix‎^[4], Los Angeles: Retro Systems, page 112:

     I remembered Miranda talking about a rare Roman shower fetish, where people liked you to throw up on them.

   • 2001, DarrinT68, “Roman Shower: Chicks Who Blow Chunks”, in soc.sexuality.general, Usenet.
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see Roman,‎ shower.

See also

• (fetishistic act): emetophilia