# Is "bum" offensive? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 11, 2004, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794 "2004-06-11T10:56:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/1 "2004-06-11T10:56:42Z")
Long story short, I’ve been calling patient’s rear-ends their bum’s at work (“you need to move your bum back in your chair more so you don’t fall out, Mrs so-and-so”) and a Nurse brought up today that I might be offending some of the more delicate elderly ladies by calling a bum a bum. I can’t really see anything offensive about it: in my book “bum” ranks down there with “bottom” or “posterior” as being completely _in_offensive. So, who’s right? Me or the Nurse? ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/2 "2004-06-11T11:57:38Z")
According to [Flanders and Swann](http://www.nyanko.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/fas/tried_pee.html) it is: > [@](#): > > Ma’s out, Pa’s out, Let’s talk rude! > Pee Po Belly **Bum** Drawers. > Dance round the garden in the nude, > Pee Po Belly **Bum** Drawers. > Let’s write rude words all down our street, > Stick out our tongues at the people we meet, > Let’s have an intellectual treat for > Pee Po Belly **Bum** Drawers. 😃 Grim ---
**Author:** ![Kymodoce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8797f3/32.png) [@Kymodoce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kymodoce)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/3 "2004-06-11T12:31:42Z")
Well, for myself I find it rather childish and… oh I dunno… vulgar? Mind you, I am a prig, so don’t mind me. It’s not a word I use often, though I do with my kids sometimes. I think, for what it’s worth, that it could offend some people. But hardly ever fatally. ---
**Author:** ![MizQuirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@MizQuirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizQuirk)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/4 "2004-06-11T13:17:49Z")
It could be worse. I heard that when Harry Truman was president, a reporter once asked his wife Bess if she could please get the president to stop using the word “manure” so much. Her reply was something like “You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to get him to call it manure!” ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/5 "2004-06-11T15:01:27Z")
I say you call an ass an ass. And after you’re done talking to your nurse, say “bum” as much as you want. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/6 "2004-06-11T15:48:26Z")
I don’t know. Unless you have allready established an informal rapport with the patient, then saying bum seems unprofessional. But with a good rapport then anything that the patient finds amusing is good, and plenty of old ladies have very raucous senses of humour. ---
**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:** [June 11, 2004, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/7 "2004-06-11T17:38:33Z")
In the Sixties, the BBC wouldn’t play the Kinks song “Plastic Man” because it included the word “bum.” So it hasn’t always been “completely inoffensive.” ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/8 "2004-06-11T18:08:29Z")
I think they prefer the term “domicile impared”. What? ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/9 "2004-06-11T22:26:00Z")
Antique US advertising sound bite: “Ajax! bum bum The foaming cleanser!” ---
**Author:** ![jastu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jastu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jastu)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/10 "2004-06-11T23:32:10Z")
As an Aussie I hear _bum_ all the time and it doesn’t bother me but I think maybe for the older ladies, _behind_ might be a better word to use. ---
**Author:** ![Jpeg\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/11 "2004-06-11T23:44:18Z")
Look. At. Me. My bum is on the Swedish. SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDISH! [Tom Green](http://m3.easyspace.com/insanefool/l_tom_bm.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Burnt\_Sugar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee59a6/32.png) [@Burnt\_Sugar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burnt_Sugar)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/12 "2004-06-12T00:10:36Z")
I think you should use bottom. But that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/13 "2004-06-12T00:14:24Z")
You could always do your Forest Gump impression and tell them to move their buttocks. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/14 "2004-06-12T00:21:32Z")
Maybe you should say “can” instead. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/15 "2004-06-12T04:07:07Z")
If you’re in a medical setting, you should be on the safe side and use the technical medical names for body parts. Instead of “bum,” you should say “hiney.” ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/16 "2004-06-12T05:23:46Z")
Okay, bum is out I guess. However! No one’s given me any monosyllabic nonoffensive alternatives other than “ass” and “can.” Suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/17 "2004-06-12T05:29:06Z")
Bum strikes me as _slightly_ silly, but not vastly unprofessional – especially considering the lack of a useful alternative. (By way of contrast, one doctor once asked me if I had blood in “the feces… you know, the caca.” Uh, thanks, I knew what feces are.) ---
**Author:** ![lynxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e99b99/32.png) [@lynxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynxie)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/18 "2004-06-12T06:22:06Z")
strange…in my family, ‘bum’ is the polite word! 😕 ---
**Author:** ![stately\_plump\_buck\_mulligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@stately\_plump\_buck\_mulligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stately_plump_buck_mulligan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/19 "2004-06-12T06:28:50Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > Okay, bum is out I guess. > > However! No one’s given me any monosyllabic nonoffensive alternatives other than “ass” and “can.” > > Suggestions? Seat? Rear? Hind? In America, _bum_, rather than be considered even in the slightest bit offensive, fits squarely into that Cute Cuddly Whimsical Words Used By Those Dear Old Adorable Brits category. Similar fates seem to have been assigned to shagged, wanker, et al. (Side note: I can’t be the only person to see the thread title and instantly assume it to be about hobos… I mean, indigents.) ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794/20 "2004-06-12T10:48:11Z")
Can’t remember if this was Monty Python or not: _There’s nobody loves you like your Mum, even when she spanks you on your bum…_ Bum deal Bum steer Bum a smoke? Bum’s rush Bummer, man 🆒 Bumstead, Dagwood Bum strikes me as a very inoffensive word. Be proud of your bum! 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bum-offensive/249794.md?page=2)