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Original poster

To ask for a national campaign to stop adults referring to their "tummy"

120 replies

OptimismvsRealism · 19/07/2024 09:33

Still absolutely fine to talk to children about tummies

But adults need to know that it is never ever ever ever ever ok to say "my tummy hurts"

Ever, ok?

OP posts:
Edingril · 19/07/2024 11:14

Could be worse 'on the boob'

BingoMarieHeeler · 19/07/2024 11:13

Oh also no, adults saying ‘poorly’ is awful too.

BingoMarieHeeler · 19/07/2024 11:13

I think I default to midriff because stomach is a specific thing within the midriff. Can’t bring myself to say tummy or belly. Guts is unnecessarily uncouth. Abdomen is unnecessarily clinical. However if I’m just home alone with DH I’ll announce loudly and dramatically that my bowels hurt (if, indeed, they do). Oh how we laugh!

SummaLuvin · 19/07/2024 11:12

"I've got a poorly tummy" works for indigestion, period pain, the raging shits, food poisoning and any other abdominal ailment you can think of.

@PatricksMother maybe I'm alone in this, but someone saying that isn't vague and a=can mean many things to me. If someone tells me they have a 'poorly tummy' I 100% think they have dihhoreaha

Toottooot · 19/07/2024 11:12

A’ve got an affa sair tummy tum tum today. Fit div yi suggest min?

PatricksMother · 19/07/2024 11:10

Tummy is no worse than using "stomach" to refer to all or any part of the abdomen.

In fact, tummy is much better.

"I've got a poorly tummy" works for indigestion, period pain, the raging shits, food poisoning and any other abdominal ailment you can think of.

Mumoftwo1316 · 19/07/2024 11:09

User478 · 19/07/2024 11:04

I had a midwife who clearly agreed with you, she was always saying things like "I'm just going to listen for baby in your stomach" or "let's just measure your stomach to see if baby's growing nicely"

But that's so anatomically incorrect lol! Unless you've eaten your baby.

Upthread the definition for tummy is "stomach or abdomen"

So tummy ache is more accurate for abdominal pain than stomach ache.

Etymology of "tummy" is irrelevant, it has come to mean abdomen

IFollowRivers · 19/07/2024 11:09

Tumbly egg is our go to word for pain in the lower area beneath the sternum but above the public bone.

I fail to see your issue

User478 · 19/07/2024 11:04

I had a midwife who clearly agreed with you, she was always saying things like "I'm just going to listen for baby in your stomach" or "let's just measure your stomach to see if baby's growing nicely"

Wombats77 · 19/07/2024 10:55

Tum lover here, also use poorly.

earlymorningcurlewcall · 19/07/2024 10:52

ShipshapeShore · 19/07/2024 09:50

I hate the word stomach.

You can't... stomach the word stomach..?

FeralNun · 19/07/2024 10:51

Just dropping in to offer you all ‘tumkin’.

You’re welcome!

isthesolution · 19/07/2024 10:49

OptimismvsRealism · 19/07/2024 09:59

A tummy ache is just meaningless as well. What do you mean, woman?

I think this is probably why we say tummy?! We don't know what part hurts exactly - somewhere internal between our chest and pubic bone! Maybe our intestines? Possibly our stomach? Maybe even our ovaries?

bananacreampie · 19/07/2024 10:48

allthemiddlechildrenoftheworld · 19/07/2024 10:25

@OptimismvsRealism can someone think of a better name for "tummy tuck"?? extended apronectomy anyone?????

Edited

It's an abdominoplasty.

crimpet · 19/07/2024 10:47

Hijacking to change one consonant. Riding on the back of this, please can we have a national campaign to stop grown adult men using the word 'mummy'. I have two male friends who do this and every time I hear it, I want to slap them around the chops with a wet fish.

Runningupthecurtains · 19/07/2024 10:45

LoveSandbanks · 19/07/2024 10:07

As a woman in my 50s I’d like to distance myself from your colleague as much as possible!

lickle????? 😡

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Stay well clear of Lancashire then.

Uiommpourting · 19/07/2024 10:45

OptimismvsRealism · 19/07/2024 09:56

I like to think of it more as the weird babytalk police.

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Yet you start a weird thread on the word tummy! 🙄

DiscoBeat · 19/07/2024 10:42

It's in the Oxford Dictionary. That's good enough for me!

To ask for a national campaign to stop adults referring to their "tummy"
Megifer · 19/07/2024 10:42

Oh I know, I have to do sickness forms with grown adults who say "severe tummy ache" or "severe belly ache" and I always say "ok ill note stomach ache" 🙄

Somepeoplearesnippy · 19/07/2024 10:41

Tummy is awful.

Belly is only acceptable when referring to a delicious piece of pork.

And can I add to the mix the phrase 'my mummy friends' when used in adult conversations by a 40 year old woman.

EnjoythemoneyJane · 19/07/2024 10:40

bananacreampie · 19/07/2024 10:21

The "tummy" is the stomach - it is "an informal or childish word for stomach". Most "tummy aches" are in the lower abdomen and are to do with the small and/or large intestine, not the stomach.

Don't get me started on the twee, euphemistic "tummy tuck"...

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This!! Tummy is an infantilisation of the word stomach, not a reference to ‘the whole area’ as some people are insisting!

Either way it’s bloody awful to hear adults use it in conversation with other adults. A man I’d previously thought quite attractive was instantly not as soon as he said it - it’s the verbal equivalent of sucking your thumb.

Get a petition going, OP, I’ll sign it.

Mrsjayy · 19/07/2024 10:36

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 19/07/2024 10:35

We do “tum-tum-tum-tum-TUMMY” rubs here, and this boy is a big fan.

Oh that's allowed obviously.

Mrsjayy · 19/07/2024 10:35

Demonhunter · 19/07/2024 10:15

Just to give the belly haters nightmares 😂

Oh no thank you 😧

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 19/07/2024 10:35

We do “tum-tum-tum-tum-TUMMY” rubs here, and this boy is a big fan.

To ask for a national campaign to stop adults referring to their "tummy"
FuzzyWuzzyWuzABear · 19/07/2024 10:30

endofthelinefinally · 19/07/2024 10:14

You would be lucky to get as far as an examination these days. Telephone and online consults are first line, so describing the location of your pain accurately will save time.

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Not the case at my GP surgery, although I do realise I'm lucky.

But no doctor in their right mind would just take a patients word for it, without asking questions anyway.

Look how many people call their vulva their vagina.

"Thanks for phoning back doctor. I have a problem with my vagina", is obviously going to prompt questions. They're not just going to issue a prescription without doing their job.

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