# 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:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![lynxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e99b99/32.png) [@lynxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynxie)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/41 "2004-09-12T11:01:45Z")
If you people keep up the cross cultural transferences, you will all end up Canadian. We spell it Mom, but pronounce it Mum. We have zeds and elevators. It’s colour and centre here but also aluminum. We are confused. 😃 i ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/42 "2004-09-12T11:31:31Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > Every time I see the word “arse” written out, I imagine a pirate saying “Arrr-se”. > This is why I can’t bring myself to actually _say_ the word, and why I giggle each time I hear it aloud. See that’s how I feel about ass. It just makes me giggle… “he called me a donky-hole, hehehe” ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/43 "2004-09-12T11:33:37Z")
DonkEy-hole. I’m keeping mum, jandal, chilly bin, togs, gumboots, dairy and all the other good stuff. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ageless6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@ageless6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ageless6)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/44 "2004-09-12T11:42:37Z")
Does anyone in the UK actually use the word “mumsy”? It sounds so,“Oh mumsy,it’s so cold in the castle tonight.Would you please tell the butler to put another couple of logs on the fire?” ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/45 "2004-09-12T11:47:57Z")
Well not in the UK but I (we?..the usage itself is probably not well known to the “hip” generation 😃 )) use mumsy to say something (generaly clothing) is outdated eg: “that’s a very mumsy skirt”. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/46 "2004-09-12T12:37:28Z")
When I start hearing people around here using ‘aluminum’ rather than alumin **i** um, then I’ll really start to worry. ---
**Author:** ![Capt\_B.Phart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Capt\_B.Phart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_B.Phart)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/47 "2004-09-12T13:34:04Z")
I find it most upsetting that Americans now use “wank” Ah, the fun of calling someone “a wanker”, to be greeted with a puzzled expression. Oh, and you can keep your wanky date format, it’s DD/MM/YY – thats just logical! ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/48 "2004-09-12T14:13:44Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > jandal, chilly bin, togs, gumboots, dairy and all the other good stuff. 🙂 Please to define words? ---
**Author:** ![paulberserker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/49 "2004-09-12T16:25:47Z")
Fighting ignorance indeed. **Lobsang,** let’s clear some things up. How many English people have you heard use the word ‘Mom’ rather than Mum or Mam, IRL or on TV? I haven’t heard any. Also, the Father Ted writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews **did not** invent fecking and feck. It’s an Irish accent variation on fuck that’s been about for donkeys years, as i’m sure some of our Irish Dopers will back me up on. Father Ted popularised it i’m sure, but they no more invented the term than Red Dwarf invented ‘smeg’. Yje term ‘Mumsy’ may still be used by upper middle class whitebread kids in some posher places, but it’s more a quaint outdated stereotype IMO. For the record, I use Mum, occasionally Ma. My Dad terms my Granmothers as Mam (his mother) and Mum (me Mums Mum) - This is a Yorkshire accent i’m talking about. So the answer to your OP is, don’t be stupid. I don’t understand the basis for it, unless things are drastically different and USA assimilated like a planet taken over by Borg or summat in the Isle of Man. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/50 "2004-09-12T16:32:45Z")
Perhaps he’s still angry about the Marathon/Snickers debacle. Anyway, “mom” would sound silly in an English accent. The ‘o’ would be too short. ---
**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 12, 2004, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/51 "2004-09-12T16:57:03Z")
> [@paulberserker](#): > > Fighting ignorance indeed. > > **Lobsang,** let’s clear some things up. How many English people have you heard use the word ‘Mom’ rather than Mum or Mam, IRL or on TV? I haven’t heard any. There was an advert for a kid’s show themed about mums, titled ‘mom’. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/52 "2004-09-12T17:08:44Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > There was an advert for a kid’s show themed about mums, titled ‘mom’. (wonders to himself: ) now why would those Brits produce a kid’s show about chrysanthemums? Rather silly, t’isnt it? ---
**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/53 "2004-09-12T17:10:13Z")
I’m not even British and in our family we call my Mom “Mum” or “Mummy”. So even if Britain stops doing it, Canada will carry it on! ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/54 "2004-09-12T20:11:21Z")
I have never heard a British kid call their mum ‘mom.’ Thank god! So hopefully it will stay that way. I also hate ‘mam.’ ---
**Author:** ![ageless6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@ageless6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ageless6)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/55 "2004-09-12T21:04:16Z")
The only one I know who calls his mother 'mam’is Eric Cartman,but he’s mean,so he probably means it sarcastically. ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050/56 "2004-09-12T22:02:04Z")
Maybe Mam is something that’s restricted to Tyneside? I and my immediate family use it, e.g. “Me Mam” meaning “my mother”, far more than Mum. As for ‘Mumsy’, the word as used to mean mother reminds me straight away of ‘The Crystal Maze’. Anyone remember the occasional mother character in this game show? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-going-to-lose-our-mums/264050.md?page=2)