this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025
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Aka a whore bath, a sink/basin bath, a wash-up, hittin the high spots, wiping up, etc.
There's all kinds of variants on it. I spent twenty years bathing, or helping bathe, people. You'd be amazed at the variety of ways folks will build up terms for such minor tasks that are regular and repeated that "need" a distinction from a more common thing
Once the default form of bathing turned into tubs, it was inevitable that bathing via a basin or other container develop its own nomenclature. Same as it became inevitable that once showers became ubiquitous that you'd run into distinctions between that and a tub bath.
Since the oldest form of bathing inside a house or structure was the one that lingered most in rural areas where indoor running water was last to appear, farmers were one of the last groups to take that kind of bath daily. So that's the terminology that stuck in places where that was a factor.
However, the term "whore bath" preceded it by a good margin, going back to somewhere in the 1800s iirc. Since prostitutes got sweaty and sticky multiple times a day, the need for a quick bath of the "important" parts was a bit of a meme. When the daily bath for everyone started switching to tubs post piped water, the term got expanded into the fuller basin bathing methods that were used daily.
Mind you, daily bathing practices varied a lot everywhere. Some places and times, people might default to the bare minimum of hands, face, crotch, and ass. Sometimes not even all of that. I can't recall the sect, but there was a religious group back in the 1700s that considered washing anything but the face, feet, and hands sinful.
The typical actual bath by farmers was fairly complete though. The more common farmer's bath was often referring to the quick wash up they'd do while coming to a meal or otherwise taking a break. Hands, face, sometimes some water poured over the head, and more rarely an extra scrub at the pits. Again, the exact methods would vary a lot.
Talking to older folks from before running water was a thing was always interesting. We tend to forget how damn amazing it is that we can just turn a knob and get water. It's something that has never been common everywhere. And, it hasn't been so widespread before the last half of the last century. There's still places all around the world where it isn't even reliable in some cities, and many rural places don't have it at all.
So you still run into a lot of farmers worldwide where a daily bath is a rag and a container of water.
I didn't think I was going to read a well written five paragraph essay deep dive on the nature of bathing slang across culture from an expert in the field today. Well, here we are. Thanks for the great response southsamurai!