# Are we Brits going to lose our Mums? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 11, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050 "2004-09-11T16:26:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/1 "2004-09-11T16:26:50Z")
In favour of ‘mom’? Let’s hope not. It makes me a bit sad that My country continues to assimilate all things American. America is a great place but I like my Britain. ---
**Author:** ![Kymodoce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8797f3/32.png) [@Kymodoce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kymodoce)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/2 "2004-09-11T16:43:55Z")
You can take my mum away when you can prise her from my cold… no, that’s not working… Here’s one brit (married to an american and with four american kids), who isn’t going to start ‘mom’-ing anytime soon. Anyway, we’d have to all start eating apple pie, and I don’t like apple pie. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/3 "2004-09-11T16:44:49Z")
But “mum” is better! You’ve got to keep it! ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/4 "2004-09-11T16:55:22Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > In favour of ‘mom’? > Let’s hope not. > It makes me a bit sad that My country continues to assimilate all things American. > > America is a great place but I like my Britain. YOU WILL CONFORM DAMN! YOU!!! YOU WILL CONFORM!!! _breaks out bull whip and starts screaming obcenities in German_ ---
**Author:** ![Lucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/5 "2004-09-11T17:14:31Z")
Well, now that we’ve successfully insinuated ‘zee’ instead of ‘zed’, we’ve decided to move on and usurp your mothers! Mwahahaha! Of course, it would go faster if we could somehow work her into the ABC song…here, sing with me, Cookies, Elevator, French fries, Truck Don’t say petrol or you suck. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/6 "2004-09-11T17:22:50Z")
We don’t have mums where I come from. We have mams and movvers. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/7 "2004-09-11T17:25:47Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > We don’t have mums where I come from. We have mams and movvers. Liverpool? ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/8 "2004-09-11T17:32:27Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Liverpool? Nottingham. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/9 "2004-09-11T18:04:18Z")
this one should be obvious. You silly brits have a long history of studying ancient civilizations and languages. So why can’t you just admit the simple fact: A mummy is a wrapped-up corpse. A Mommy is who kisses you at bedtime. Got it? and one more thing: studying numbers is called \* math [/]. There ain’t no “s” on the end of it.That’s just plain stupid, okay? And if you got any more Yankee-phobic questions, just remember --we beat you in 1776. Deal with it. And what you got to be proud of , anyway? You think you’re tough 'cause you’re the birthplace of some old fart named Shakespeare? Hey, we got John Wayne. Wanna fight about it? (but I’ll give ya credit for saying petrol, instead of gas. It don’t make no sense to call it the same as the stuff you cook with.) ---
**Author:** ![Tuco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tuco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuco)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/10 "2004-09-11T18:06:22Z")
> [@Lucretia](#): > > Well, now that we’ve successfully insinuated ‘zee’ instead of ‘zed’, Really? I’ll give you soccer is fast catching up on football for the game where you use your foot to move the ball, but zed is much more common than zee, even with schoolkids. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/11 "2004-09-11T18:12:03Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > A mummy is a wrapped-up corpse. A Mommy is who kisses you at bedtime. What about wrapped up corpses that kiss you at bedtime? ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/12 "2004-09-11T18:19:43Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > we beat you in 1776. No you didn’t, there was quite a bit of fighting after then. The War for Independence didn’t officially end until the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty on September 3rd, 1783. So there. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/13 "2004-09-11T18:22:11Z")
> [@Lucretia](#): > > Well, now that we’ve successfully insinuated ‘zee’ instead of ‘zed’, we’ve decided to move on and usurp your mothers! Mwahahaha! Of course, it would go faster if we could somehow work her into the ABC song…here, sing with me, > > Cookies, > Elevator, > French fries, > Truck > Don’t say petrol or you suck. Bwahaha – that made me snort. Good show. Every time I see someone say mum, I can’t help but think it’s quaint. It just seems so cutesy. But over time, I’ve gotten used to it and I hope you’re able to keep your distinctive identity instead of being assimiliated wholesale into ours. Of course, considering your guys recent history (by which I mean over the past five hundred years), it \*would \*be highly ironic if you wound up aping another culture, even if its one so similar. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/14 "2004-09-11T19:55:27Z")
re. “Mum”: FWIW, in this part of the country, chrysanthemums are a hugely popular autumnal nursery plant, but they’re almost always accompanied by signs that say something like “Mums for sale/$4 each or 3 for $10”. Do Brits use the whole word, then, for the flower? There’s one Britishism I’ve never understood: your saying “arse” and “arsehole” instead of “ass” and “asshole”. The latter word, especially, gets so much disdain and contempt packed into it when Americans pronounce it with a bit of a drawl: “ahhss-hoole!” It’s purely cultural, but I can’t help but smile when I come across an “arse” reference in something; it just seems so innocent and quaint! And don’t get me started on “shite,” with a long-“i”. Well, if it’s any consolation, a _few_ of us like to use slang terms like “chuffed,” “bloody,” and “stupid git”. (Probably the same people who, as kids, used to get beat up in school, but I digress.) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/15 "2004-09-11T20:03:42Z")
Well I’m not a flower expert. But I’ve never heard them refered to as ‘mums’. Arse just sounds better, more comical to us. Some of us use it like homer uses ‘doh’. or “My Arse” (Jim Royle) Also. Shite (pronounced like ‘kite’ with a sh) sounds slightly better than shit. one popular use is “Bag o Shite” meaning, well, something is shit or crap. Pardon my french. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/16 "2004-09-11T20:17:34Z")
I used to know one Brit on another board that was constantly saying something was fecking gobshite and while I am sure he was being quite venomous, I just couldn’t take him seriously. It sounded like something my six year old nephew would say. Granted, I feel much the same way when I read pit threads here and every other word is fuck and the OP spends three sentences telling whoever it is that pissed them off what they could do with a syphilitic camel. There’s a point where profanity crosses over from the profane to the inane and mundane and too many people here can’t seem to realize that. Less is more. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/17 "2004-09-11T20:24:35Z")
feck and fecking, invented by the show Father Ted, are convenient words to express a feeling when you’d rather not swear. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/18 "2004-09-11T20:28:28Z")
The guy saying feck wasn’t the type to mince words. At best, he was a nuisance but was more typically an outright troll so I have a hard time believing he was using feck in that manner. How old is the show? How common is feck? Is there anyone in Britain that uses it as a pure synonym for fuck? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/19 "2004-09-11T20:37:37Z")
[http://www.fathertedonline.ukf.net/](http://www.fathertedonline.ukf.net/) > [@](#): > > It was broadcast on Channel 4 from 21st April 1995 to 1st May 1998 I think it’s used more online than in general. I don’t swear much in verbal conversation. I don’t like it. So I use words like ‘damn’ and ‘bugger’ ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/20 "2004-09-11T20:42:36Z")
Damn isn’t a swear? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050.md?page=2)