There’s a brand of portable toilets in Germany called toi toi, which I thought was odd. In French, ‘toi’ is the informal form of ‘you’, and I wondered if there was any connection. Not that ‘you you’ was a logical name for a portable toilet, but it was the only connection I had to ‘toi’.
Later, I come to find out there’s a phrase in German (toi toi toi) that you use when wishing someone luck. A friend has a big day coming up and you simply say to him, ‘toi toi toi.’ The word here sounds like ‘toy’ in English, so say that three times and you’ve just wished your German counterpart luck in whatever he’s got in front of him.
Back to the name of this particular portable toilet company. It’s only ‘toi’ doubled. Not the customary three times. Almost as if they’re wishing you luck as you go in to do your business, but not too much luck. Reserved luck.