# Did "trump" really mean "fart" in British slang, pre-Trump? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [September 25, 2023, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-trump-really-mean-fart-in-british-slang-pre-trump/990672 "2023-09-25T12:20:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-trump-really-mean-fart-in-british-slang-pre-trump/990672/21 "2023-09-26T15:24:02Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I was surprised to discover from the recent thread that “streets ahead” is completely unfamiliar to most Americans Never heard of it. [looks it up] I’d say “miles ahead”. Don’t they have miles in the UK? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-trump-really-mean-fart-in-british-slang-pre-trump/990672/22 "2023-09-26T15:27:52Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > > [@SanVito](#): > > > > “Did you just trump” > > “No, my shoe just has a squeek” > > I am not familiar with it (born London, 1960s). I would not have known what you meant by this. I’ve never heard it used this way but it would have been obvious to me from context alone. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-trump-really-mean-fart-in-british-slang-pre-trump/990672/23 "2023-09-26T15:50:56Z")
> [@Staggerlee](#): > > Yep, I didn’t hear ‘trump’ (spoken, that is…) during my southern childhood, only when I later lived in Yorkshire. That is my experience, too. For a while the term ‘trump’ seems to have become a bit more common down south, but the young people now all seem to speak Multicultural London English, so they probably have a different term these days for farting. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-trump-really-mean-fart-in-british-slang-pre-trump/990672/24 "2023-09-28T07:31:16Z")
> [@slicedalone](#): > > British slang as a synonym for “fart” even before Donald Trump became known to the public, ca. 1970 For the purposes of your FQ, you are quite right to isolate the date period like this, but it’s probably worth mentioning that Trump was not really well known to the UK public, probably right up to some time in the 2000s or so, when the US version of _The Apprentice_ made it to our screens. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-trump-really-mean-fart-in-british-slang-pre-trump/990672/25 "2023-09-28T15:15:58Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Don’t they have miles in the UK? 🙂 We sure do. And buy our petrol (gas) in litres. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-trump-really-mean-fart-in-british-slang-pre-trump/990672/26 "2023-09-28T18:40:00Z")
Just to say that references to being in the south or being up north in this thread required me to parse a number of these posts a bit more carefully than usual, since in the US, The North and The South are two distinctly American identities. I have never heard that terminology used with reference to England. Thank you. SDMB continues to fight ignorance! ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-trump-really-mean-fart-in-british-slang-pre-trump/990672/27 "2023-09-28T23:06:37Z")
I’m familar with trump meaning a toot. I think of it as the slow expulsion of gas. A Fart is quick and loud. John is a slang term for toilet and it’s a proper Noun. There’s no confusion in using the word. I still use toot or trump as a bodily function. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2023, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-trump-really-mean-fart-in-british-slang-pre-trump/990672/28 "2023-09-29T01:52:58Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > This gives an entirely new meaning to the statement that at The End of The World we will hear The Last Trump. That would be these guys, I think. [![](https://preview.redd.it/azgib4rmjb971.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=c7ff2a4d37e91cab9238f50f67c202c50c02fdde) ](https://preview.redd.it/azgib4rmjb971.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=c7ff2a4d37e91cab9238f50f67c202c50c02fdde) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2023, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-trump-really-mean-fart-in-british-slang-pre-trump/990672/29 "2023-09-29T07:34:59Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I think it’s much harder to get a sense of who does _not_ know an expression. It pretty much requires that you use it yourself, and in circumstances were someone is likely to ask you what you meant by that. Whereas our sense of what expressions people _do_ use is informed by everything we hear. You’re right - in the case in point of this thread, I never encountered the word ‘trump’ as fart, growing up in the South of England, then I did encounter it a lot when I travelled to the North, however, this wasn’t just a geographic journey, I was also moving out of a familiar social circle into an unfamiliar one. Without also travelling to other places _not_ in the north, I have no way to know if the same thing might have happened there. Hasty generalisation I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2023, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-trump-really-mean-fart-in-british-slang-pre-trump/990672/30 "2023-09-29T08:27:48Z")
> [@CC](#): > > Just to say that references to being in the south or being up north in this thread required me to parse a number of these posts a bit more carefully than usual, since in the US, The North and The South are two distinctly American identities. I have never heard that terminology used with reference to England. Thank you. SDMB continues to fight ignorance! Two distinct identities in England as well - though with a different kind of definition. South = moneyed, professional classes, London-centric; North = industrial and less well off. Broad brush and a bit out of date, but you get the gist. Safe to say they look down on each other. I can say this as I’m from the Midlands and live in the South West (which doesn’t count), so am more of a casual observer. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2023, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-trump-really-mean-fart-in-british-slang-pre-trump/990672/31 "2023-09-29T11:17:57Z")
Probably worth noting that Scotland has its own sense of ‘down south’ too - which means places like Ayr and Dumfries, which are north of most\* of England’s ‘up north’ \*The border between Scotland and England runs diagonally SW to NE, so there are parts of the north of England that are further north than parts of the south of Scotland. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-trump-really-mean-fart-in-british-slang-pre-trump/990672.md?page=1)