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

Dreadful word, never used in our house. Absolutely no need to call it a belly button, nothing wrong with tummy button or navel.
In all my time as a nurse I did not feel the need to refer to it as a belly and patients understood.
I do laugh when people think they are being posh when referring to their vagina, not applicable unless you are talking to your gynaecologist ?

I think it is stupid to hate a word like belly, maybe its because people don't want to appear common (as someone said) how on earth can you hate such a word it doesn't make sense.

When I was holding English Conversation classes with a group of Laos would be medical students we went through the body parts using all the names, like belly, stomach, tumbling etc. and why in the english language do we say ear ache or tummy ache when its a pain?

It’s a disgusting word!
However a dive gone wrong will always be a belly flop!

I can’t imagine how anyone can ‘hate’ words like belly and bum they re fairly innocuous
One of my granddaughterS used to called her front bit her ‘Minnie’ When she was about 2 she had some new pants with Disney pictures on the bum one was a picture of Minnie Mouse she was very proud of them and parading round in just her pants to show them off ...her brother two years older called his mum saying ‘Mum mum She’s got her pants on back to front’

This reminds me of my grandmother who asked the butcher for ‘stomach pork’ rather than let the word belly cross her lips!

I suppose I was influenced by her as I remember being a bit shocked at the line in ‘Twas the Night before Christmas’ where Santa had a ‘ little round belly that shook, when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly’!

In the US nobody uses tummy or stomach, belly being perfectly acceptable.

Our eldest daughter christened her 'front bottom' her twinkle. No idea where that came from but it has stuck and all the girls in our family do so now.

Boys have a penis.

We have tummy buttons.

Elaine, I dont think anyone is arguing.

I've just remembered. My brothers didn't have a willy or a penis. They had a "wee man". Sounds funny now.

I don't mind it being used in any other context but not referring to the body. I don't know why. I just don't like saying it. Tummy is definitely for children.
Here in N I my mum used the term "doing your numbers" to refer to number 2. Aagh! I can hardly bear to write it.

When I was a kid I in the 1940s/50s I had a tummy, a tummy button and a bottom. No other parts had names. I didn’t even know the word bum. Belly was certainly not used.

My own children were both boys. I tried to use accurate words, but I think willy did feature, introduced by them.

I've just remembered a word that makes me truly cringe as used by Americans, "panties" thank God we don't say that here! it just ridiculously coy. Knickers or pants please, although I realise the latter word is used to describe trousers for men in America.

I'm not too keen on it, I don't like adults using the word tummy though either, fine when children say it, it's a word I associate with the very young somehow sounds ridiculously childish when adults utter it.

‘more portly Henry VIII’

Reading ‘The Mirror and the Light’ by Hilary Mantel at present and she has Thomas Cromwell describing the more portly (since a leg accident after a severe fall from his horse curtailing exercise) as sway-bellied. Very descriptive!

Hate hate hate the word. Bum is another. Never used it with my children and I squirm if I hear the grandchildren use them .

Isn’t it weird.

A word itself says what it says, and nothing else. It is the connotations we lay onto it from other cultural aspects of our lives, that make us react as we do.

I hate the word kids for children. Kids are young goats as far as I am concerned. I love kids, so it isn’t that. I suspect it is snobbery initially but cannot remember.

gilly never heard of foo foo?? My mother used fanny to describe her rude bits.

All together now....

Ma's out Pa's out let's talk rude Pee, po, belly, bum, drawers.

Not considered a PC duo now days but Flanders and Swann still make me laugh.

I use the words tummy and bottom mostly. I have been known to tell DH to shift his arse on occasions.

Words like that don't bother me really. Grarss, barth and parth bother me more especially when the person saying those words correct my pronunciation.

Well, stomach is inaccurate when used in place of belly/tummy. The stomach is an organ, not a generalised area of the body as it’s sometimes misused.

I don’t mind tummy, or belly, or willy (with six grandsons I hear that one a lot more than I need to ).

My yogalates dvds are fronted by a very chirpy Australian, who always talks about bally breathing and blowing out your bally. Maybe that’s a bit more acceptable?

I think it is regional too Callistemon and a stupid thing to argue about. As for the other bits it's personal to each family and no one should be mocking what terms other people use. As long as children learn correct terminology by the time they are school age there is nothing to worry about (unless abuse is suspected).

Perhaps it's a regional thing.

Can’t stand the ‘b’ word......wasn’t ever used when I was growing up and I’ve never used it. It’s tummy, tum, stomach, insides (if talking about discomfort) even innards, but never b....! I’m currently cringing at a tv ad which is using the word. Think it’s the one for Buscopan

That’s how my stepmother ended up pregnant by a Canadian soldier (who turned out to be married). She knew it was wrong because it involved bottoms but had no idea that it would lead to pregnancy. Her sister gave birth thinking the baby would come out of her navel - she had twins!

Our son was a toddler when OH was getting him ready for bed. His dummy was called his ding (as in give me that thing) and he called hi willy his dink. He was a bit sniffly so I suggested putting some Vick on the back of his dummy. No prizes for guessing where he put it!

Tum for the benefit of the older ones, tummy for the little ones.
Bot, again for the older ones and bottom for the little ones.

Ah.. a tummy tumkins.
How cute!

I would tickle my baby granddaughters tummy . It’s a baby word . When she lifts her little dress or tee shirt up I always say “I can see your tummy tumkins”