The word 'belly'

[eighteentwentytwo]

I'm a southerner in the north and I'm wondering if 'belly' has the same awful connotations that it has where I came from.

My son is using it all the time and I hate it! I would prefer he said 'tummy'. AIBU?

I’m a Southerner, and I can’t stand the word ‘ tummy ‘ being said by an adult. It’s so infantile. Sort of thing Mrs. Bouquet would say . 😂

I’ve never like the word belly and would never use it (unless I was saying belly of pork or belly dancer 😁). It’s a word that, dare I say, gives me the ick.

I'd see a Dr about that.

It's the name of a very good band.

Belly to me is a big fat wobbly stomach. Tummy is much nicer IMO.

It’s ok if it’s being said to a child but as an adult I say stomach.

For me it's definitely about the infantalism.

I don’t like either word. Also don’t like abdomen or torso 😟 So I don’t know what the answer is.

Quite. One should arrange for one's Purveyor of Marine Victuals to eviscerate one's Wild Cornish Clupeidae prior to conveyance to one's domicile in order to prepare the evening's Sarde a beccafico.

Heaven forfend that you should be so uncouth as to ask them to gut the Pilchards and doublebag them so you don't stink the bus out on the way home for tea.

I'm a southerner and wince when I hear it! It's not a rude, just an icky word! Same as the word 'claggy'.

I'm Northern, but was brought up not to say "belly" because it's not polite. I don't know why really, but I don't use it and I'd not want DS to use it.

I never realised so many people hate the word "tummy." 😁

Londoner here and we never used 'belly' growing up - it was 'tummy' or 'stomach', and 'tummy button' as a child. Now I think I'd say 'navel' but I suppose I might say 'belly button' as in 'belly button fluff'.

I wouldn't use 'belly' to refer to my body or anyone's body - I'd say stomach ('flat stomach', 'flabby stomach') or abdomen/abdominal if I had a specific pain that wasn't my stomach. I do use the word 'belly' but in very particular, semi-jocular ways: 'beer belly', 'belly flop'. A belly is always large in my usage, like a beer belly. I would never say 'my belly hurts' or 'there's a baby in her belly'.

Growing up some older people always used to cringe at the use of ‘belly’ saw it as being a less polite word for tummy/stomach. Not sure why.

Oh, and northern here

A stomach is an internal organ. I'd even prefer an adult saying tummy than that!

Northern / Scottish here and we weren't allowed to use the word belly growing up!

Also a southerner and completely agree.

Tummy is ok, but quite childish. Stomach for older children/adults. Weirdly, I'm ok with "tummy ache" though.

Belly. Ick. Big fat flabby belly.

And don't even get me started on gut.

I have no idea why I think this way, where it stems from, but I knew exactly what you meant as soon as I read your OP.

All this fake snobbery about the words belly is hilarious. Its a word commonly used by general surgeons.

I HATE the word "belly" too and always use "tummy". ",Belly" sounds awful and unpleasant... can't really explain why!

Belly's ok, massively dislike gunt though.

Think u have lost the plot, and r spouting rubbish.

I note you haven't been able to say what the awful connotations are, OP, or in what sense it's rude or crass.

Try to be less judgemental about the words people use. It's often not meant to offend.

For me, belly is a perfectly fine way to describe the part of the abdomen that contains your guts, or, in case that word's offensive, your viscera or your digestive tract... or maybe you prefer intestines? Bowels, maybe???

For instance, in most cases it'd be more accurate to say "I have a belly ache" than to say "I have a stomach ache" - as those pains are rarely coming from the actual stomach.

A friend of mine was once turned away from A&E here in France because as he was saying "my stomach hurts" he was pointing to his belly. He should maybe have said "ventre". Anyway, they said to him "that's not your stomach" and pretty much something along the lines of "come back when you've learnt some anatomy". It was NOT a busy A&E.

People can be so dismissive of others. Honestly, it's a word like any other.

Gut is good, as in a beer gut, fat-gutted so&so or gut-gripe. Belly is fine. Tummy is risible from an adult, and stomach has a precise meaning which is usually not the intended one. Stomach ache is not the same as gut gripe, either.

I also hate the word bum