Is this counted as a swear word?

Well I was brought up to say bottom, tummy, wee wee, a-a (for poo), rude noises and front bottom!! I'm not keen on using any of the words which have been mentioned (bum, belly, fart, pee etc) I find them rather vulgar but wouldn't class them as swearing. As for saying 'I need a pee' which some friends of my age do, I wold NEVER say that! I say 'I need the loo'. My DiL doesn't let any of her children say these words either (except poo which seems ubiquitous.). However my other DiL (and son) talk about the baby having a smelly bum and changing his bum. I;m not keen on it but used to it. My DH would not like me to say these words either. I suppose we are rather proper in that respect, but not in all respects!!

Devonlady!. I live in a large city and you can hear real swear words everywhere you go, so if you think bum is a swear word don't venture into a city because you'll get something far worse than a jolt.

By the time my son left his prep school he knew how to spell 'that word' properly.??

Granjura I'm sitting on my 'page 60' as I'm writing this!

Honestly how silly. Very clever DH still has his leatherbound tiny dictionary from his primary school days - with page 60 marked where the word 'bum' is

He and his (all very well brought up) friends used to 'swear' at each other by just saying the page number. So cute.(life's too shorttruly).

Dorsetpennt- you can't be serious!.

My 5 year old granddaughter giggles at words like bum and fart and there is nothing wrong with either of these words being used. To say that this could be the slippery slope is silly.
My 8 year old son wrote the word fuk in a Janet and John book which I still have. He is now 43. (and very clever)?

Bum? I think it's cute...

I remember singing that in the 70's too alicebandit. So yes probably a generational thing as I was born in the 60's.

^ ...though I might use it in context if it was used by a younger person, for the sake of social ease!

"Trebor mints are a little bit stronger, stick 'em up your bum and they last a bit longer."

I remember my stepson's younger brother singing that back in the 70's when we took him on holiday with us. He was about 8 at the time.

Not a word I would use I suppose, but as others have said, it's probably a generational thing...

I was teaching English to a group of Laos medical students and we named all the body parts, belly, stomach, gut, bum, bottom etc. As they might well encounter some person who had "gut ache" for example and I see nothing wrong or offensive in using the word bum. In fact to me it sounds like the sought of word a kid would use. If just ant be.ieve the word bum needs to be discussed

I always thought Nellie was slang for belly haha just goes to show
I m with you Legs C is the only word that makes me cringe
It reminds when I had some Russian men staying in my house they used to love to go shopping especially QD anyway after one shopping trip the excitedly told me they had bought some sperm I was a bit shocked until I found out they had been buying packets of seeds

Language is constantly evolving although you will find many "swear words" are Old English (all are in the dictionary). I don't find bum at all offensive.

I love the post about Minions & the use of "bottom", my 6 year old GS loves it & thinks it's really funny & slightly rude!!

The only swear word I find very offensive is the C word, if you're easily offended don't go to Glasgow (the F word is part of their vocabulary not used in an offensive manner just a normal part of their language)

Nanak we call it getting a new happy nappy when changing his bum/bottom [smile

And on the usa never tell a man to keep his pecker up!!!!!

When in our Atlanta office, I asked the secretary is she had a rubber I could use, she was not amused.

I've never heard the expression 'to fall on one's nellie' Elegran. I've heard 'not on your nellie' but have never wondered what a 'nellie' was...

Now here's a question - where exactly is a British fanny? Is it a bum, like the US one, or is it what is coyly called a front bottom? And if you fall on your nellie in the UK, is that the same as falling on your fanny in the US?

Good to know we can still discuss things like rude words!

Good grief with all that's going on in the world, a thread about the word bum!!! In USA they call it a fanny

I used to work for a bus company in the 1980's. We brought out a TV advert with a little song that went "...but most of all get your bum on the bus". The ASA made us change it to "...seat on the bus" as they said "bum" wasn't suitable for TV. I like to think things have moved on - even my mum used the word and she'd be 94 this year, if she was still with us. Just a word that you either accept or not, I think.

What's the bottom line here?

'Bum' isn't a swear word, it's Anglo-Saxon, and at worst might be considered slightly vulgar.
Having said that, DGD age 2, always grasses me up to her mummy: "Nanna said BUM!"

No bum isnt a swear word, it is used freely in our society these days, yes it is a generation thing, I wouldnt used the word, say botttom instead, it all amounts to the same part of our anatomy.

No problem at all with the word bum, however I dislike the expression 'time to change your bum' always want to say 'surely you're changing his nappy'?

Don't think of it as a swear word, but don't use it and neither do my DC's or DGC's. When I was a primary teacher, I didn't like hearing other teachers telling children to 'sit on their bums'.