# Do you "poo" or "poop"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 18, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826 "2011-02-18T17:17:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/21 "2011-02-18T18:44:48Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > If I’m out in public with my wife or friends or whatever, and nature calls (then begins to leave lengthy messages) so that I’ll need to depart from the group, I’ll usually announce this to whoever needs to know by saying “poop” in a high-pitched, cartoony noise. Anyone who may have overheard might think I was probably just making a noise and/or being weird. Such are my descreet ways. > > When I’m at home, I just declare “I gotta shit!”, as I push my kids out of the way. You sound like my kinda guy, **cmyk**! This is cracking me up. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/22 "2011-02-18T18:46:17Z")
Very rarely, when I’m feeling poetic, I’ll actually announce after the deed that, “my butt said something brown.” ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/23 "2011-02-18T18:55:38Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > You sound like my kinda guy, **cmyk**! This is cracking me up. And as someone who chose **Dung Beetle** as her handle here (as well as being apropos for this thread), I know that you’re my kinda girl! You’d have a blast at our Detroit/Ann Arbor Dopefests. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/24 "2011-02-18T19:06:42Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > And as someone who chose **Dung Beetle** as her handle here (as well as being apropos for this thread), I know that you’re my kinda girl! You’d have a blast at our Detroit/Ann Arbor Dopefests. Sadly, I doubt I’ll ever make it. But if I do I’ll be sure to pull your finger. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RainGrowsBrite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@RainGrowsBrite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RainGrowsBrite)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/25 "2011-02-18T19:10:53Z")
My Dad and I like to say… “Ive got to Rest”… derived from ‘going to the restroom’, which we thought was a funny term. What are you doing in the Restroom? Resting? Another popular term used in my family, as of late, is to “Chagall” (the painter). We (my family) were in France at a Chagall museum last year, when my husband had to “rest”. A hilarious conversation ensued afterward and so for the rest of the trip we’d say… “I gotta Chagall”. This has followed us back home and we intend on putting a Chagall Painting in one of our bathrooms. But to answer the original question… i’m with Poop. Poo is immauture! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Daerlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Daerlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daerlyn)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/26 "2011-02-18T19:12:03Z")
‘Poo’ sounds like ‘Pooh’, and causes an unpleasant association with a beloved character of my childhood. Should I be moved to discuss my butt eruptions in a cutesy way, I go with ‘poop’. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/27 "2011-02-18T19:13:48Z")
I can’t imagine \*any \*situation in which I said Poo. \*Maybe \*Poop. But really, I doubt I would announce it at all, if I did, I would simply say I had to use the restroom. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/28 "2011-02-18T19:15:05Z")
I just lay an egg. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/29 "2011-02-18T19:15:56Z")
Shit. (or take a dump or a crap). Dogs and cats occasionally poo, but generally they also shit. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/30 "2011-02-18T19:17:43Z")
**Do you “poo” or “poop”?** I take a dump, honeybunch. Or in the immortal words of the Greaseman, it’s time for a massive. “Poo” is a term I associate with a constipated\* 40-year-old woman. \*in more ways than one. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/31 "2011-02-18T19:21:21Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Sadly, I doubt I’ll ever make it. But if I do I’ll be sure to pull your finger. 🙂 You sure? No one’s ever made it through all ten… Yes, I include the thumbs. “Hey, pull my left ring-finger…” “No! No more!!! After the left-index, I’m not sure my liver can take anymore.” ---
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/32 "2011-02-18T19:45:28Z")
> [@Daerlyn](#): > > Should I be moved to discuss my butt eruptions in a cutesy way, I go with ‘poop’. I knew I stopped back here for a reason. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/33 "2011-02-18T19:53:34Z")
The word is “poop.” I know, because I [wrote the books](http://robson.org/gary/whopooped.php) on it. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/34 "2011-02-18T19:55:22Z")
I chose “poo is a noun, poop is a verb” but I also use poop as a noun. But poo is mostly a noun, “Dammit, I stepped in dog poo!”. I also sometimes refer to farts as poots, it’s all in the poo family. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/35 "2011-02-18T20:32:40Z")
I agree with the wily one, but I prefer the all in one (verb, noun, adjective, expletive) _shit_. The most important question (IMO) however, is who gave shit its unpopular name. After all, if it weren’t for the word shit, we wouldn’t need substitute words like “poo” or “poop”. Couldn’t have been by the sound it makes, like “fart”, for instance. Maybe long ago someone warned someone else, “Hey! Be careful! You’re about to step in some…_shit_, what _do_ you call that stuff, anyway???”🙂 Quasi ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/36 "2011-02-18T20:58:38Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I can’t imagine \*any \*situation in which I said Poo. \*Maybe \*Poop. But really, I doubt I would announce it at all, if I did, I would simply say I had to use the restroom. Yeah, I’m with you. I might tell people that I’m going to the bathroom or restroom. I never feel the need to explain exactly what I’ll be doing in there. But if I did, I think that takin’ the Browns to the Super Bowl would be my announcement of choice. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/37 "2011-02-18T21:06:39Z")
I love the term “doot,” and use it all the time to refer to my cats’ output. “Okay, gotta go scoop the cat doots now.” Both the spouse and I picked it up from Dave Barry years ago. I think the first time I encountered it, he was talking about their movers, who “wrapped each individual cat doot.” For some reason I found that devastatingly funny at the time. The word “doot” still makes me giggle. 🙂 As for what I do, I “go to the loo.” I don’t really feel I need to get any more specific about it than that. Though at home I"ll announce “I gotta pee,” so careful listeners can make their own deductions if I say I’m going to the loo instead. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/38 "2011-02-18T21:09:33Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > As for what I do, I “go to the loo.” I don’t really feel I need to get any more specific about it than that. Though at home I"ll announce “I gotta pee,” so careful listeners can make their own deductions if I say I’m going to the loo instead. By process of elimination? ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/39 "2011-02-18T21:21:01Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > I love the term “doot,” and use it all the time to refer to my cats’ output. “Okay, gotta go scoop the cat doots now.” > > Both the spouse and I picked it up from Dave Barry years ago. Yes! Only in the one I remember, he was talking about getting hit in the head by a flying caterpillar doot. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826/40 "2011-02-18T22:05:46Z")
The diminutive version is poo-poo. Poo is a stuffed bear who can’t spell. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-poo-or-poop/571826.md?page=3)