To think " belly" is a horrid, ugly word!

Yep, phoenix

Tummy is used by consultants, doctors etcetc

I wouldn't be calling them babyish

I can't imagine a doctor asking to feel my belly!

I'm with you gillybob!
Bum
Willy etc

Just watching a hospital programme on Channel 5, consultant said to the patient "We're just going to examine your tummy".

Good enough for an NHS consultant.......

On our way into town we have to go over a tummy bridge!

I dislike the word BELLY too. I also dislike:

tummy, gusset, boobs (silly), willy, bonking (for sex), titties and fart.

Bluebelle

Tummy is not baby talk

I suppose the people who have ‘tummy buttons’ also do wee wees and poo poos ...isn’t it baby talk
I can’t imagine what’s wrong with ‘moist‘ you have a nice moist cake Surely you don’t all imagine knickers if you hear the word moist You ve all got amazing minds

I have always disliked the word 'casual'.

But I really like the term 'bellyaching' to describe someone who is grumbling excessively.

I have no idea why I dislike the word belly in some contexts but not in all. I mean bellyaching accurately describes some moaners to me and I don’t mind it then . At primary school we had a rude rhyme, ‘ Richard Kelly has a rhubarb belly ‘.
( Don’t ask. No idea . )
As someone said, it must be the feelings that are invoked that make you shudder as if you’ve said a rude word. Is that it ?
As a teenager I would wonder about why you could say duck but not the f word that rhymes with it. Swearing is such an interesting topic of its own.
I use ‘tummy ache’ even now if I get one. And the incorrect use of vagina bugs me . I don’t like ‘panties’ but not massively keen on ‘knickers’ . My daughter hated ‘moist’ but that isn’t one of mine. But gusset is an ugly word in my opinion as is the c word.
Really thought provoking thread, Phoenix .

Doctors never say belly

If they're examining they tend to use the word tummy

In fact I was in A&E last year and I vividly recall the lovely consultant telling me my tummy was nice and soft

She probably meant a little bit pudgy but didn't like to be rude

I really dislike belly, and would only use it for pork or dancing.
With no daughters, our sons had penises ( much to my mother in law’s disgust!). When I was a child there wasn’t a name for the vulva, simply because I don’t ever recall talking about it!
I’ve never heard my granddaughters talk about it either, but my grandsons, being a bit ruder, joke about willies or lads!

Callistemon. Mam is definitely South Wales, mio? not the foggiest

I too don`t like belly , or gut,tummy is a pleasant word.

Now that I think of this, yes, belly is a horrible word.?
Not sure I have ever used the term, but doubt it.
The Lemongroves are a tummy button family too.?

Personally I think Belly is more correct that Tummy. but I remember my mother using tummy rather than belly. ''Dear have you to got a tummy ache''? Though tummy is a more child-like speak than belly when speaking to a child. .

Etymology:

From Middle English bely, beli, bali, below, belew, balyw, from Old English belg, bælg, bæliġ (“bag, pouch, bulge”), from Proto-Germanic *balgiz (“skin, hide, bellows, bag”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell, blow up”). Cognate with Dutch balg, German Balg.

Noun:

belly (plural bellies)

The abdomen, especially a fat one.
The stomach.
The womb.
The lower fuselage of an airplane.
The part of anything which resembles the human belly in protuberance or in cavity; the innermost part.
The belly of a flask, muscle, violin, sail, or ship
The hollow part of a curved or bent timber, the convex part of which is the back.

The etymology of Tummy - Imitating a child's attempt to say stomach, via archaic colloquialism i.e. stummy.

Fanny pack is horrible, isn't it, HootyMcO although I do use the term bum bag

I'm called Mammio, Anniebach!
I haven't worked out if it's Welsh or Italian.

Oh dear, I was an infantile 54 year old, still called my parents
Mammy and Daddy

Pain in the ass is what we call them.
Better or worse?

There is the person who is a pain and gets called a belly ache. Stomach ache doesn’t work for that.

I really hate that phrase “fanny pack” the Americans use for a bum bag, it makes me shudder - although bum bag is not much better is it! A fanny is your front bottom where I come from (although that is not a polite term!). I also hate “panties” yuk, pants is ok!

Tummy button

A thong in Australia is a flip-flop.

Oppsminty we once had dinner with a very well-to-do American couple. Dh and I nearly burst with trying not to laugh when our hostess suggested we moved to more comfortable seating, because she was suffering from ‘fanny fatigue’. ???

It's not really about words being defined as common imo, it's the nauseating subliminal message "panties" gives out when it isn't applicable to a child's garment, so glad it's not generally used here, but that's America for you, there is such a coyness about bodily functions over there, hence "restroom" we all know what they are used for and it ain't a rest! Why can't they just say it "lavatory" toilet" Bodily functions all part of the human condition what's to be coy about.

There are just some words that sound perfectly fine when they are used by little children, tummy etc. We as children were always falling about laughing at the word "bottom" and again with my own and later on grandchildren nothing seems to produce mirth for the very young such as that word. Tummy is really sweet coming out of the mouths of children but somehow sounds really infantile when used by adults a bit like grown people who call their parents mummy and daddy.