# I hate the term "bowel movement" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 15, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403 "2011-09-15T16:27:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/21 "2011-09-15T21:37:12Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Because if you only speak about the bowels moving, you can remain mysteriously silent on what’s being moved through them. Which would be feces. > > Bowel is a word that sounds like an intestinal rumbling that might produce a burp or might produce a fart, you just can’t tell yet. > > Is it odd that the other day I heard “Peristalsis, peristalsis. . .” being sung in my head to the tune of Frère Jacques by the voices of small children? Sadly, they never got to the next line. I think there could be a good filk song there. Peristalsis, peristalsis The bowels move The bowels move Plop into the water, my bowels moved … handbasket ride to hell for me :smack: ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/22 "2011-09-15T22:12:12Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > engineers call it fecal extrusion. Geologist call it “mass movement”. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/23 "2011-09-15T22:19:16Z")
Blue color workers call it a “labor movement.” ---
**Author:** ![maisoui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@maisoui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maisoui)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/24 "2011-09-15T22:48:52Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > … Is it odd that the other day I heard “Peristalsis, peristalsis. . .” being sung in my head to the tune of Frère Jacques by the voices of small children? … Thank you \*so \*much for that… I needed another earworm. :0) ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/25 "2011-09-15T22:56:51Z")
Conversation I overheard today in a quiet store, between a boy about 7 years old and his mom: Kid: what is that, mom? Mom: Something to make my bowels move. Kid: What? Mom: something to make me poop. Kid: poop? you mean shit? Mom: yeah, something to make me shit. Kid: OK As a nurse, I ask people every day if their bowels have moved. I had no idea so many people dislike the phrase! ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/26 "2011-09-15T23:28:11Z")
Several years ago I wrote the openinng lyrics to a blues song that, to this day, I still like: > [@](#): > > _Well my baby she don’t trust me, caught me foolin’ around > So she moved her bowels to the other side of town…_ mmm ---
**Author:** ![Bri2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/48db29/32.png) [@Bri2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bri2k)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/27 "2011-09-16T00:00:50Z")
> [@Zjestika](#): > > I hate it too, especially when it’s shortened to BM. Yes, but it’s much better when it’s [Tylenol BM](http://www.hulu.com/watch/1597/saturday-night-live-tylenol-bm)with Alec Baldwin (video). Bri2k ---
**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:** [September 16, 2011, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/28 "2011-09-16T00:08:24Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > As a nurse, I ask people every day if their bowels have moved. I had no idea so many people dislike the phrase! “Mine have moved all over town with me today. First we went to Target, then to the grocery store…” ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/29 "2011-09-16T00:24:37Z")
[Bowels no move!](http://www.jokesgallery.com/joke.php?joke=3496&id=1) (Warning–link also contains a video with sound.) ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/30 "2011-09-16T00:30:12Z")
I honestly can’t understand why people would dislike the term “bowel movement” more than “poop” or “doo-doo”. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/31 "2011-09-16T00:36:58Z")
In Soviet Russia, bowels move you! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/32 "2011-09-16T00:46:13Z")
I find it a great source of juvenile amusement to search for the word “bowels” in the King James Bible. Song of Solomon 5:4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. Lamentations 1:20 Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled 2 Samuel 16:11 And David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life Genesis 43:30 And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother 2 Chronicles 21:15 And thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day. Job 30:27 My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. Isaiah 16:11 Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab Philippians 1:8 For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. Philemon 1:20 Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord. Jeremiah 4:19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/33 "2011-09-16T01:00:00Z")
Poop shit crap dookie caca. Take a dump. Have a grumpy. Drop a log. Lay some cable. Shake hands with Mr. Brown. See a man about a horse. ---
**Author:** ![Jaxnative1210](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@Jaxnative1210](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaxnative1210)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/34 "2011-09-16T02:11:49Z")
We call it a Code Brown on da bambulamps…or around the little old ladies, we refer to someone baking the brownies… ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/35 "2011-09-16T02:13:35Z")
I once visited a preschool (in Cambridge, Mass, naturally), where I was solemnly told by one of the teachers that they encourage the kids to say “BM” because “they don’t believe in euphemism.” I didn’t have the bowels to tell her that “BM” was in fact a euphemism for a euphemism. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/36 "2011-09-16T02:29:02Z")
I don’t see the necessity of discussing this even with other words, euphemisms or graphic ones! I also intensely dislike people getting all excited about cleaning their colon from toxic waste products! My sister put it in a way I appreciate: she says she expects her colon to clean itself. After doing the mommy business when my kids were little, and listening to all the poo-poo jokes when they were growing up, I’m ready to graduate to something else. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/37 "2011-09-16T02:31:38Z")
> [@Zjestika](#): > > I hate it too, especially when it’s shortened to BM. Word for word, this is what I came in to post. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/38 "2011-09-16T03:05:36Z")
The shit you say. ---
**Author:** ![Jaxnative1210](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@Jaxnative1210](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaxnative1210)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/39 "2011-09-16T03:37:30Z")
peristalis, peristalis cannot poo, cannot poo could not make a code brown cause my bowels are locked down cannot poo, cannot poo ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403/40 "2011-09-16T03:40:42Z")
I find it appropriate that the previous poster’s name rhymes with “laxative.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-the-term-bowel-movement/596403.md?page=3)