# What euphamism for feces did you use as a child? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 17, 2003, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759 "2003-08-17T12:35:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kid\_Gilligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kid\_Gilligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_Gilligan)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/1 "2003-08-17T12:35:43Z")
I’ve heard doo-doo, ca-ca, poop, etc. But, I grew up using a strange one. I remember, as a child, using the word **bum**. I suppose it probably came from BM (bowel movement). As I grew older, of course, I began using more common (and more adult) terms. Therefore, it never occurred to me , until adulthood, that **bum** was not a very common synonym for crap. My mother grew up in an Irish Catholic family in New Orleans, if that is any clue. Were we the only family to use this word this way? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/2 "2003-08-17T13:09:40Z")
Number two. ---
**Author:** ![green\_bladder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@green\_bladder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_bladder)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/3 "2003-08-17T13:13:32Z")
‘Ka-ka’ or ‘the big one’ ---
**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:** [August 17, 2003, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/4 "2003-08-17T13:26:59Z")
Poo. ---
**Author:** ![GraceTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@GraceTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraceTX)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/5 "2003-08-17T13:53:22Z")
Mahoney. Actually, to be more specific, the turd was a mahoney. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/6 "2003-08-17T13:59:27Z")
Boringly, “poo”. However, my ex taught her 2-year-old daughter to say “Mommy, I want to go for a shit”. It was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Mariemarie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@Mariemarie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mariemarie)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/7 "2003-08-17T14:57:34Z")
Embarrassing story follows. Foof originated when my oldest sister was in diapers. When my mother would change the diaper, she’d say “Whewpf! You sure are wet!” My sister learned the word “foof” to mean urine. This was handed down to all younger siblings. Incidentally, the “oo” is pronounced as in “book”. My second oldest sister may have expanded the theme to create “foofy-rockers” to mean feces; I’m not sure of its precise history. Those are the words we learned. We didn’t use them outside of the family. I remember playing in my babysitter’s backyard, and asking her if I could come in the house to foof. She didn’t know what I was talking about. Foof can be used as both a noun and a verb, and as a verb, it can mean both to urinate and to defecate: “Hurry up in there. I really have to foof!.” “Do you have to make foof or foofy-rockers?” “Eww! A dog foofed on the sidewalk!” Foofy-rocker is always a noun. I don’t know whether my neices and nephew ever learned these terms. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/8 "2003-08-17T17:44:13Z")
Hubby: his family called it “grunt” - as in “I have to go grunt now”… New Mexico Me: Choo - probably from the sound southerners make when they smell something nasty. When I was about 5, I was at my best friend’s house and had to go to the bathroom. I went up to her mother and said that I needed to “choo”. The kind lady kept giving me bubble gum until it was too late, and my mom had to bring more clothes. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/9 "2003-08-17T18:02:13Z")
**DeVena** , I used to live in Alabama as a kid, and it was “grunt” for us, too. I assume that’s from the straining to get it done. In addition to the favored “doo doo” (which I used to think was “dodo” until I heard about the bird – we even referred to some birds as “dodos” (pronounced doo-doos) when we were out shooting them with BB guns or .22’s), there was “duz duz” (I think this was purely my dad’s fun with the normal “doo doo”) and “hockey.” Later I heard about “fluff” and “flotch.” Quite a bit later it was “crap” and “crud.” I guess my favorite is “road apples” as in “what weighs more, a pound of gold or a pound of road apples?” ---
**Author:** ![Mirth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Mirth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirth)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/10 "2003-08-17T18:54:26Z")
We called it number two as well. As in: I have to go to the bathroom. Number one or number two? ---
**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:** [August 17, 2003, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/11 "2003-08-17T18:56:03Z")
Number two. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/12 "2003-08-17T19:08:09Z")
I just had a heavy thought! Since do-do is two do’s (dos) maybe that’s why it’s #2? ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/13 "2003-08-17T19:21:12Z")
BM. I’m guessing that was the influence of some child theorist of that era (early 70s) who told parents using silly words for tabu subjects would stunt our growth. But it meant that in first grade, we got really concerned for poor Brian Murphy when the teacher wanted us to call out our initials, and tried to talk her out of it for humanitarian reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/14 "2003-08-17T19:22:14Z")
I used to call it poopie. My friends weren’t allowed to say “fart” or any of its normal variants, and instead had use the euphemism “fluff.” ---
**Author:** ![rinni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@rinni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rinni)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/15 "2003-08-17T20:15:33Z")
Gick. Heh, I’ve never met anyone else who called it “gick”. Gick was a noun. Verb: poop. Poop was also a noun, of course. Also turd. And I also used to say “totally turd!” for anything that I didn’t like - as in “I hate onions, they are totally turd!” and “I have a test tomorrow, that’s totally turd!” ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/16 "2003-08-17T22:06:51Z")
Tee Tee for urine Grunt for feces why am I telling you this? ---
**Author:** ![Jimmerz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b2d939/32.png) [@Jimmerz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmerz)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/17 "2003-08-17T22:33:44Z")
Do big. As opposed to do little. The neighbor’s kid would say he had to ‘make’. Er, I seem to have terms for the act, not the result. An auspicious first post. Hi, all. ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/18 "2003-08-17T23:29:44Z")
My family and I use the term “bombing.” We came up with this in the summer of 2000 on a road trip to San Francisco. It had something to do with the U.S.S. Hornet… let’s just leave it at that! F\_X ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2003, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/19 "2003-08-18T05:30:01Z")
Poop, and then shit, once I was 10 or so. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2003, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759/20 "2003-08-18T06:16:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by emilyforce \* > **BM. I’m guessing that was the influence of some child theorist of that era (early 70s) who told parents using silly words for tabu subjects would stunt our growth.** The theorist in question (Dr. Spock, perhaps?) was apparently influential by 1959, when I was born. I remember being about four years old and telling Mom that her mother “calls a B.M. something different, like _boun_.” Mom then explained to me that “B.M.” was an abbreviation for “bowel movement”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-euphamism-for-feces-did-you-use-as-a-child/195759.md?page=2)