# Why do we go "P" and not "U" ?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-go-p-and-not-u/133582
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 23, 2002, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-go-p-and-not-u/133582 "2002-10-23T21:09:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hayduke\_Lives](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hayduke_Lives)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2002, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-go-p-and-not-u/133582/1 "2002-10-23T21:09:26Z")
Silly question here:
Why, when we have to use the bathroom, do we say we have to “Pee”? Isn’t that a short form of saying “piss”? When did it become proper to use a shorter form of the word piss? Why didn’t people say they had to “U” or “Urn” or something short for urine?
A why is/was the word piss ever considered a nasty word in the first place? Isn’t it used in the Bible?
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### Author:  [@Fatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fatman)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2002, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-go-p-and-not-u/133582/2 "2002-10-23T21:22:12Z")
A guess.
Maybe the same reason we say, “I have to eat.” instead of
“I have to food.”
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2002, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-go-p-and-not-u/133582/3 "2002-10-23T21:30:17Z")
Piss is probably considered a nasty word for the same reason that shit is. It’s not considered polite to talk about bodily functions.
I know the King James Version uses “piss”. It’s possible it wasn’t considered a bad word at the time the KJV was written.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2002, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-go-p-and-not-u/133582/4 "2002-10-23T22:28:23Z")
Piss is the word we inherited from the speakers of Germanic prot-English.\* Urinate is the “polite” word we borrowed from Latin (by way of Norman French). Any number of concepts take their “polite” forms from either French or Latin while their “vulgar” (literally, “of the common people”) forms are from the earlier Old or Middle English.
If people are going to speak euphemistically, it makes sense that they would apply the euphemism to the less savory word.
\*The famous/notorious fountain in Brussels that is in the form of a small boy, urinating is called, in Dutch, _mannekin pis_–pissing boy.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2002, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-go-p-and-not-u/133582/5 "2002-10-23T22:46:57Z")
From the [American Heritage Dictionary](http://www.bartleby.com/61/4/P0330400.html):
> [@](#):
>
> Middle English _pissen_, from Old French _pissier_, from Vulgar Latin _pissire_, of imitative origin.
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### Author:  [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2002, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-go-p-and-not-u/133582/6 "2002-10-23T23:14:56Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Fear Itself \*
> \*\*From the [American Heritage Dictionary](http://www.bartleby.com/61/4/P0330400.html): \*\*
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > Middle English _pissen_, from Old French \*pissier, from Vulgar Latin _pissire_, of imitative origin.
That “of imitative origin” suggest that the word is an example of [onomatopoeia](http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=onomatopoeia). Onomatopoetic words tend to be quite similar across all languages (for obvious reasons), and they’re not cognates (since the languages aren’t genetically related). It looks like it could quite easily have come from either – but my money is on **Tom~** in this instance.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2002, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-go-p-and-not-u/133582/7 "2002-10-24T00:05:19Z")
Actually, I had forgotten that Old French had _pissier_. On inspection, I find that the OED says that, in this instance, the Germans, Dutch, and English borrowed the word from French.
The use of _piss_ as the vulgar=common word with the Latin-derived word replacing it for “polite” use stands.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2002, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-go-p-and-not-u/133582/8 "2002-10-24T03:07:13Z")
_piss_ is undoubtedly onomatopeic. It’s in Shakespeare, too. Quite a bit. I’m sure “pee” is abbreviation for “piss”. One might as well ask why we don’t “M” – “micturition” means the same as “urination”.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2002, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-go-p-and-not-u/133582/9 "2002-10-24T13:55:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \*
> \*\*One might as well ask why we don’t “M” – “micturition” means the same as “urination”. \*\*
You know, only a scientist would ask this. 😉