# "Slash" = "Upchuck" in your lexicon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 24, 2014, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slash-upchuck-in-your-lexicon/679610 "2014-01-24T14:16:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slash-upchuck-in-your-lexicon/679610/21 "2014-01-24T23:44:26Z")
Never heard slash for vomitting before, to vomit is usually hurl or simply throw up. Only time I’ve heard of slash for a bodily function was in a dictionary that defined fart as a slashing noise between the legs. (Another dictionary substituted grinding in place of slashing). ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slash-upchuck-in-your-lexicon/679610/22 "2014-01-25T02:03:37Z")
Never heard of it used in the context of any bodily function. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slash-upchuck-in-your-lexicon/679610/23 "2014-01-25T02:25:45Z")
I learned ‘slash’ as slang for urinating when I watched _Braindead_. Never heard it for vomiting. I’m surprised no one has mentioned ‘spew’ yet. That’s the one I use. > [@EmilyG](#): > > Blowing chunks ‘Oh, man! I was so drunk I blew chunks!’ ‘It’s all right. We all drink until we spew once in a while.’ ‘You don’t understand. Chunks is my dog.’ ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slash-upchuck-in-your-lexicon/679610/24 "2014-01-25T02:50:18Z")
One good thing I’m getting from this thread is that if I needed a “password” to confirm the validity of somebody claiming to be from Central Alabama from the years 1954-1959, all I’d have to do is use the word “slash” in a context that might be taken as referring to either of the bodily functions under discussion and if the person claimed to be from that area and thought it was referring to urination, I’d know he/she was an impostor. Maybe there are similar words that have regional identity for your area that could be used by you for a similar purpose of catching an impostor. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slash-upchuck-in-your-lexicon/679610/25 "2014-01-25T05:42:41Z")
Taking a slash in Aus-speak definitely refers to urinating, esp of a male. Women tend to use more _delicate_ language, like “I’m heading off to the dunny to take a piss, who’s coming with me?” 😛 Apart from all the other variants of vomit, there’s also **chunder.** \*Apparently \*derives from old seafaring times, when those on the upper-deck, overcome with an urgent biliousness, would warn those on the lower decks that they were about to hurl. Chunder = \*\*_WATCH UNDER_. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slash-upchuck-in-your-lexicon/679610/26 "2014-01-25T05:57:15Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Apart from all the other variants of vomit, there’s also **chunder.** Ah, yes, as popularized in the lyrics of “Down Under” by Men At Work. Never knew it came from “watch under.” ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slash-upchuck-in-your-lexicon/679610/27 "2014-01-25T06:20:43Z")
Someone at the Norman Lindsay Gallery assures me of the truth of this origin. > [@](#): > > Another theory is that chunder is a truncation of ‘Chunder Loo’, which in turn is rhyming slang for ‘spew’. The Australian National Dictionary assigns probability to this theory. ‘Chunder Loo of Akim Foo’, a tall, bald, smiling, endearing Indian from Bengal, always accompanied by a fat koala dressed in the same fashion as Chunder, and usually shown riding a chariot drawn by three harnessed cobras, was the main character in a series of cartoons, accompanied by verses, drawn by Norman Lindsay (later by Lionel Lindsay) to advertise Cobra boot polish. The cartoons were very popular and ran in the Sydney Bulletin from 1909 to 1920. from [Australian National Dictionary Centre](http://andc.anu.edu.au/pubs/ozwords/June2002/Aussiewords.html) Apparently the first written reference was in Neville Shute’s 1950 novel \* A Town Like Alice\*, so both origins seem dubious. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slash-upchuck-in-your-lexicon/679610/28 "2014-01-25T11:05:32Z")
> [@Osiris\_the\_1st](#): > > No good. > I’ve lived in Alabama my whole life and never heard slash used to refer to vomiting. Same here. I grew up in north central Alabama and have lived in west central Alabama for over 20 years and I’ve never heard this. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2014, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slash-upchuck-in-your-lexicon/679610/29 "2014-01-25T11:48:23Z")
That’s so odd to me that, if you said it in a regular conversation, I wouldn’t even be able to figure it out through context what you were on about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slash-upchuck-in-your-lexicon/679610.md?page=1)