Why is it called pee pee?

As a verb meaning to urinate, “pee” is simply a shorter form of “piss.” It originally developed in the 18th century, when it stood for “the initial letter of piss,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

grammarphobia.com - Urine analysis - The Grammarphobia Blog

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Q: I’ve had quite a few doctor’s visits and laboratory tests lately and the medical personnel I’ve encountered use “pee” for urinate, both as a directive (in a cup) or while discussing results. I don’t object to this usage, but I wonder if it isn’t a bit informal in this setting. What do you think?

A: We’ve had this experience, too. At doctors’ offices, not only are we invited to “pee” into a cup, but sometimes we’re even asked how regularly we “poop.” It may be that in medical settings, this deliberate informality is intended to make patients comfortable and put them at ease—a welcome contrast to the bewildering technical terminology the patients are faced with. Or perhaps it’s an extension of the calculated familiarity that’s sometimes called the “hospital we,” as in “How are we feeling this morning,” a usage we wrote about in 2011. We aren’t bothered by these usages in a medical setting, largely because our minds are focused on more important things—like whether we’d better start putting our affairs in order! As for the words themselves, we’ve written before about the etymology of “poop,” which didn’t mean “defecate” until the late 19th century. And though we have discussed “piss” and words derived from it, we’ve never written about “pee.” So here goes. As a verb meaning to urinate, “pee” is simply a shorter form of “piss.” It originally developed in the 18th century, when it stood for “the initial letter of piss,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary. When it was first used, “pee” was a transitive verb—that is, it required an object, the thing that was urinated in or on. The dictionary’s earliest example is about a cat: “He never stealt, though he was poor, / Nor ever pee’d his master’s floor” (from Ebenezer Picken’s Poems and Epistles, Mostly in the Scottish Dialect, 1788). Early in the 19th century, the verb was also used intransitively (without an object), and again the OED’s earliest citation is Scottish: “To pee, to make water” (from John Jamieson’s Supplement to the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, 1825). Standard dictionaries in the US and the UK now describe the use of “pee” to mean urinate as informal—that is, acceptable in speech and casual writing. Here’s an example from Lexico, formerly Oxford Dictionaries Online: “In the bathroom, the girl in the next stall answers her cell phone while she’s peeing.’ In modern British English, the phrase “peed off” is used in the same sense as “pissed off,” according to Lexico, which includes this among its examples: “She looked really rather peed off but it made for a nugget of great telly.”

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One research study demonstrated that subjects who were mildly dehydrated could reach normal levels of hydration within 45 minutes by taking in 600 mL of water or a combination of salt and carbohydrate-electrolyte solutions (CES).

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While intravenous therapy (IV) can be used in some situations to quickly treat dehydration, it’s not an everyday solution. IVs are often reserved for emergency treatment, as most people aren’t qualified to set up IV treatment on their own. Even mobile or local IV therapy businesses, which can provide IV infusions on demand, may have wait times in addition to the time it takes for you to get to the business (or the mobile business to get to you). The solution also isn’t to simply drink large amounts of water as quickly as you can. Drinking water alone can flush out electrolytes and fiber from your body, which can, in severe cases, lead to a serious condition called hyponatremia. However, there are simple tips for how to hydrate fast at home. By taking in the right fluids in the correct way, you can speed up your rehydration.

1. Use an oral rehydration solution (ORS)

As mentioned above, water alone isn’t the most effective way to rehydrate. In the 1960s, physiologists found that glucose (or sugar) helps increase the body’s absorption of water and sodium. This is known as the “sodium-glucose cotransport system.” In 1964, this type of salt-sugar solution was successfully used to treat patients with cholera. From there, the modern oral rehydration solution was formulated and used to treat diseases and other fluid loss related to medical conditions.

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