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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Poorly

162 replies

Everythingisnumbersnow · 04/02/2025 09:48

Aibu to find it really annoying how English people use this word?

Sick. You mean sick. Unwell. Under the weather.

Unless the question is "how did Rangers perform?" and the answer is "lol poorly" it has no place in the English language.

OP posts:
KurtCobainLover · 04/02/2025 10:18

I say poorly and quite like it.

apintofwine · 04/02/2025 10:17

YABU. Poorly as in unwell is different to poorly as in performed badly.

Sick is awful, it implies vomiting.

Admittedly I would tend to use poorly to describe my child being ill, and would use ill or unwell for myself

chelseahealyslips · 04/02/2025 10:17

There seems to be so many of these type of threads at the moment.
For goodness sake, just have a bloody day off from being annoyed about something so insignificant.
You might find you have a nicer, brighter day.

SnapdragonToadflax · 04/02/2025 10:17

It's a perfectly normal word - maybe a bit old fashioned as I mainly think of my nan saying it, but not awful.

Personally I think 'sick' means throwing up. I would say ill or unwell.

WhatATimeToBeAlive · 04/02/2025 10:16

I use it. It's just part of our rich vocabulary. HTH.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 04/02/2025 10:15

Poorly here. Or even poorly-sick

SleepingisanArt · 04/02/2025 10:14

It's commonly used in our local hospital (especially in the elderly care unit). My relative was 'very poorly', then 'poorly' and now is 'doing much better'. The doctors tend to use 'unwell'. Both are less harsh than 'sick' and the (often) stressed relatives can process the softer words better.

PersephoneSmith · 04/02/2025 10:12

You are not in charge of the English language.

Limth · 04/02/2025 10:11

YABU and weird.

I'm from Birmingham. It's pronounced 'poo-lee'.

HansHolbein · 04/02/2025 10:11

I’m English and I don’t use that word. English people aren’t all the same.

We all say different stuff depending on where we are from, surely everyone knows that?

ZookeeperSE · 04/02/2025 10:08

It’s only English people, using the word this way, that annoys you? Weird.
It’s an adverb and an adjective. And has been in use, meaning unwell, since approximately the sixteenth century. Any other old, commonly used words annoy you?

Arlanymor · 04/02/2025 09:50

You’ve never been to the West Midlands then. It’s vernacular.