# Other words for "booger" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 31, 2000, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421 "2000-08-31T00:43:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Teach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@Teach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teach)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421/1 "2000-08-31T00:43:36Z")
In an article on [using DNA from a booger](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbooger.html) SDSTAFF Hawk suggests using “nasal secretions” as an alternative to “booger.” That sounds fine for a scientific report, but I have a feeling most people wouldn’t automatically understand “nasal secretions” to refer to the brown-green gobs they know as “boogers.” I want to know if there are any other words for boogers. I ask because a student of mine in Japan asked how to say “hanakuso” in English and the only word I could think of was “booger.” I was a little embarrassed to give that as my answer because it sounds somewhat childish to me, like saying “poop.” English-Japanese dictionaries offered “nasal discharge” or “dried mucus.” Those seem along the same lines as “nasal secretions” and I suspect would be equally incomprehensible to the average person. So how about it? Are there any other words that people use for boogers? ---
**Author:** ![JBENZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b77776/32.png) [@JBENZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBENZ)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421/2 "2000-08-31T11:56:25Z")
Some people might think “booger” is the only term for such nasal secretions but it’s not. Two…three… ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421/3 "2000-08-31T13:28:13Z")
Although that’s less specific. ---
**Author:** ![Teach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@Teach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teach)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421/4 "2000-08-31T14:27:44Z")
All puns aside, snot is not the same thing as a booger, is it? Snot is amorphous; a booger has shape. Is there any other word for that glob we all know and love as a booger? ---
**Author:** ![Teach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@Teach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teach)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421/5 "2000-08-31T15:32:14Z")
24 hours later and no response. I guess that means there really is no alternative to “booger”. Or is there… ---
**Author:** ![Teach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@Teach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teach)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421/6 "2000-08-31T15:35:39Z")
Okay, so I exaggerated the time lag. The hours go by more quickly once you hit 30. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421/7 "2000-08-31T18:30:27Z")
I was not able to find the word booger in my thesaurus or even in my OED(collegiate edition). Is it really even a word? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421/8 "2000-08-31T18:54:58Z")
Larry Niven and David Gerrold used “nasal dropping” in “The Flying Sorcerors”. I’d suggest “dried phlegm”. I’m sure that medical dictionaries will have some appropriately obscure term. ---
**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:** [August 31, 2000, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421/9 "2000-08-31T22:44:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by xizor \* > I was not able to find the word booger in my thesaurus or even in my OED(collegiate edition). Is it really even a word? From [Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary](http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm) [booger](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=booger) Main Entry: **boog·er** Pronunciation: 'bu-g&r, 'bü- ([Guide To Pronunciation](http://www.m-w.com/pronguid.htm)) Function: _noun_ Etymology: alteration of English dialect _buggard, boggart,_ from [sup]1[/sup]bug + -ard Date: 1866 **1 :** [**BOGEYMAN**](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=bogeyman) **2 :** a piece of dried nasal mucus ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421/10 "2000-09-01T13:34:41Z")
I can offer another variation: “bogle”, but I cannot say how widespread it is (!). Two things are interesting here: the lack of terms for such things and the apparent formality of the term “snot”. The… err nasal discharge thickens. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421/11 "2000-09-01T18:28:52Z")
“Nasal discharge” is too general; it can also refer to mucous (which does have its own name). Sure, “solidified nasal discharge” would work, but you’d think that there’d be a single word to describe it-- Every other bodily secretion has at least one, and usually two or three, technical names (mucous, phlegm, etc.). ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2000, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421/12 "2000-09-01T20:56:55Z")
Booger = Mucous + dust I can’t find a technical name for it. I don’t know if otolaryngologists care whether it’s slimy or hard. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-words-for-booger/31421/13 "2000-09-03T13:58:30Z")
[quote] I’d suggest “dried phlegm”. [quote] I always think of ‘phlegm’ as the stuff in your throat or broncial tubes. As for boogers, i like to refer to them as ‘Nose goblins.’