Does anyone really say "tummies"?

phoenix, I know, really

The bairns roond ma way tell their mummies, 'Ah've got a sair belly, Maw'....('sair tummy' doesn't have the same ring to it, really)!

Would it be "sair toomy"?

how sweet marelli
This reminds me of the U and non-U stuff that Nancy Mitford wrote about. Really posh people probably say bellies. Aspiring posh thought it a shocking word?
Does anyone really say "I have a pain in my abdomen" ?

Galen I suspect that you as a doctor and I as a nurse are in the minority by saying abdomen!

I remember when DD, then 15, woke up with an extremely painful neck which was badly twisted on one side. She was never ill and ad only ever been to the doctor once but was crying with pain, so off we went. He looked her solemnly and said 'Well, we don't often see you do we? My dear, you have torticollis'. She looked very worried, and I thought for a second and said 'but that's just Latin for twisted neck'. 'Yes, I know' was the answer,'but it sounds much better described like that'.

Phoenix 'tummy pork'

Nothing to do with snootiness, as for old English , we no longer call an illegitimate child a bastard or a base child, we no longer say we are having a piss, all acceptable at one time and all old English .

In the highly unlikely event of one of the more refined gransnetters executing a less than perfect dive into her local lido (leedo, liedo?), would she refer to it as a tummyflop, a stomachflop, or an abdomenflop?

I believe belly dancing/tummy dancing/abdomen dancing is gaining in popularity too

'Tummy' is the sort of euphemism you hear from people who drink tea with a little finger stuck out, and whose 'kiddies have crumpled the doilies' in Betjeman's poem. And while we are at it, one that always puts my teeth on edge is 'hubby'...

I say tummy as in tummyache to grownups and children. I do not drink tea or eat belly pork.

I drink tea from a mug and I don't stick any fingers out...
Never used a doily in my life!

feetle I have to agree with you re "hubby"

bags

Drink tea from a mug so no little finger sticking out. Never used a doily. Never call children kiddies. Don't like 'hubby' or 'the wife' . Never go to a lido, go up the pool.

Unless with a young child I use stomach or abdomen, depending on whether I am talking about an area above or below the navel.

I can't stand 'kiddies'.

Tummy of pork - love it phoenix

Hate the word 'belly' too - it sort of conjures up a picture of an overweight layabout in a string vest. And I'm Northern

I do not like it when people use the word veggies when they mean veg.
Veggies are people, if you must shorten the word for vegetarians. Veg is the abbreviation for vegetables.

I say piss. As in, to DH: I need you to go and piss on the compost heap.

It helps with the breakdown process. Male piss is better than female piss for this purpose. Slightly different chemical composition, you know.

I piss on our compost heaps too though, sometimes.

Bastard has changed its meaning. It's irrelevant for parental purpose nowadays but it's useful occasionally for when one is angry about something. One can call the causers of one's anger bastards. Not necessarily out loud.

As is piss off.

Belly belly belly
Wobbling like a jelly

(to the tune of Love goes where my Rosemary goes...)

Next lines?

I seem to remember jess used belly after the recent royal kid was born, in a reference to Kate's post-partum belly. Tut, tut, jess

As if royal persons had bellies!

Is Kate counted as royal now?

I have just spent two hours making a six foot high wood pile so I'm taking no piss from anyone.