The word f@rt

[Violet Crown]

I can't say it either. And to this day, my teen sons seem to be under the illusion that mothers do not ever perform that action. It's just not motherly!

 

Anyway, I remember reading once that the action is actually a "fast repetitive tic," so perhaps the word is derived from an acronym? Even with that reasoning, it is not acceptable for use in mixed company in my home. But I suspect the boys and their dad have an entire set of vocabulary words they use when they are off on their manly jaunts. I don't even want to speculate on what other terms might be on THAT list....:eek:

 

Did someone request the etymology?

 

The OED directs us to the Old Norse fretr, the Old High German ferzan, and behind them the Sanskrit pard. They deduce an Old English verb *feortan.

 

The oldest known English usage is the above-linked Cuccu Song (1280), with the next oldest being Chaucer's Miller's Tale (1386): "He was somdel squaymous/ Of fartyng." As are, I see from this thread, many others. :D

 

Those not so squaymous may join us on the other thread before it gets locked. Does anyone have that Pythagoras reference yet?

[melissel]

This thread has me rolling too!!!!

 

somewhere along the line we started calling it "Marshall". As in "Did you just marshall?"

 

don't remember where that happened, but it is our family's preferred word.

 

No, it's passing gas. Farting (ooh!) has an interesting history in folklore of northern Europe. Among other things, it was a sign of a manly work ethic, and drove the devil away (well, sure).

 

On a funny note, my sister-in-law used to say her kids were "popping corn" in their diapers. My mother-in-law ate a lot of popcorn at that time. I wonder if my nephews thought when she would talk about going to the kitchen to make popcorn, if she was just gassy.

 

My kids give the (military? international?) signal for a biological weapon deployment, a.k.a. 'gas attack', by standing upright and tapping their fingertips to their shoulders repeatedly. They also announce their flatulence with a hearty, "Kelly Riiiiiiiiiipa!"

 

These are a total scream, as is specialmama's imitation of her MIL :lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

I've always hated the word too, but have become ever so slightly more desensitized since I married a guy with two brothers, one of whom is a champion "hot air biscuit dropper." His mad skillz are well known in the family :lol:

 

At our house we've called them "butterflies" ever since DD8 was a toddler and decided what she left in the potty for us looked like a caterpillar :001_huh: My mom laughingly coined the term "butterfly" and it's been that ever since. Recently, though, one of them came across the word f@rt somewhere and I had to explain what it was, and in spite of my prissy explanation about it being a rude word that can offend some, and that we prefer butterfly if we have to talk about it, their eyebrows shot way up over their heads, and they've been using the word to torment me ever since. I guess it's just universally funny, even if you grew up without its baggage!

[Rich with Kids]

We cannot leave out the eighties gem "floating an air biscuit". :D

[GraciebytheBay]

I teach British Literature to high school students. Chaucer uses this word several times. Now, he also uses the word p*ss, which I think is vulgar, but I can handle fart! Funny that it was around in Old English times.

[NanceXToo]

I don't know. I'm not a fan of "toot" myself. I find it a little weird to come up with cute names for things like that...Like if I said "bubbled" instead of "burped" or something.

 

A fart is a fart is a fart. :)

 

LOL. I agree. To me "toot" sounds even stupider than "fart."

[specialmama]

Hey, that's crazy, my ID name for several game sites is AirBiscuit and I thought it was original! I had no idea it was an 80's thing! Man, I'm so in the dark!

 

 

LOL. I agree. To me "toot" sounds even stupider than "fart."

 

Gosh.

*snort*

Thanks! :tongue_smilie:

[Annie Laurie]

I could have written this post! I hate cutesy word for biological functions. My mom used to use 'stinker' and 'tinkle' (for peeing). To this day it makes me shudder to hear anyone use either. And she doesn't say them anymore either.

 

Me too. I don't like cutesy words either, and can't think of any words that make me cringe. I thought fart was a pretty innocent word, so this thread has been eye opening for me. I'll have to mention it to my kids so they don't use it in public and end up being thought of as crude. My kids love fart jokes and they also have a penchant for the word poop. :lol: I hadn't realized it was a problem...

[Joker]

I don't mind when my dds say fart but I don't like when they say "cut the cheese".:tongue_smilie: It just really bugs me - so they want to do it even more.

[Georgiana Daniels]

HAHAHA!!! This is hilarious!

 

I loathe when my kids use this word also. Conversation the other day:

 

5 y.o.: Mom, why did sister f*rt and wreck my joy?

 

me: First of all, it was awfully rude of her. Second, don't let it wreck your joy. Third--don't say that word!!!

Edited October 6, 2010 by Georgiana D
forgot my baby turned 5. LOL!

[IsabelC]

Some of these are hilarious. Especially substituting fark (which sounds like something considered very coarse) for fart (which I was unaware was offensive to anyone until today) :confused:

 

My opinion is that for every purposes, there's nothing wrong with fart. But if you want to be really refined, do not speak about it at all: the reason why there is no really nice word for this is because it is not discussed in super polite discourse!

[LBS]

I do hate "fart", but am ridiculously sensitive (well, since its me, I don't actually think I'm being ridiculous, but I'm trying to be tolerant and generous) about my dairy farming in-laws calling a bottom/buttocks, your "tail". They call the teats of a cow or any other mild producing mammal's glands: "t*ts".

 

The best story I have is my little cutie-pie nephew, 2 1/2, out at a nicer seafood restaurant, sil and I, with about five of our kids, all toddlers or less (served us right to try to go out and get a really nice meal, when the guys were golfing or deep sea fishing), so, there's a large group of venerable old sea captain types, and their wives, at the table next to us. We tried out best to keep the food flinging and such to a minimum, but 3 were in high chairs....oh, gosh, then Tay stood up in his chair and in the loud, clear tone of a truly honest, sweet child, asked "OKAY, WHO POOTED???", addressing the whole room at large. I was so grateful he did not say 'farted'. I had to be grateful for something.

 

LBS

[2squared]

Are we the only family who nows calls it "whizpop" after reading The BFG by Roald Dahl?

[Alphabetika]

It never bothered me until I heard my MIL say it to my baby girl. Picture a strong Greek accent, rolling R's and serious nauseating baby-talk: "oh kookla, you fahrted! Neh, you can fahrt! Good girl, neh, that was a beek fart!" :glare: It still makes me cringe.

 

 

:lol::lol::lol:

[Kirch]

LOL OK I like your post, but I'm wondering if the link is wrong? :confused: I'm not following. In the one instance I saw, the buck "farted" to show how masculine he was, how verile, how he was able to father. It seems that according to that definition, the word should be "sprayed" or "ej*cul@ted", not passing gas. Am I missing something? Perhaps that is the wrong link... :lol: or I'm just dense today... which is a possibility!

 

There are plenty of HUMAN guys who seem to think that farting shows how masculine they are. :glare: The stories I heard in college . . .

[specialmama]

There are plenty of HUMAN guys who seem to think that farting shows how masculine they are. :glare: The stories I heard in college . . .

 

Yes, yes! Funny how that just flew by me this morning. Now that I've had several cups of coffee and can't get to sleep it makes perfect sense! It's a natural guy thing. Well if that's the case, then I know a woman in Ontario that can blow them all out of the water!!!

[keptwoman]

I know we all have our words that bother us. I have mine.

 

This one superuptight family I know wouldn't allow their children to say fart. They had to say fark. :001_huh:

 

I fark.

You fark.

He/she/it farks.

We fark.

Ya'll fark.

They fark.

 

fark, farked, have farked

 

farking

 

Did you just fark?

 

That is hilarious!! Among my circle of friends, that is the slightly (only slightly) less vulgar way of saying the "other" F word (which we are not averse to dropping occasionally either)

 

I don't know. I'm not a fan of "toot" myself. I find it a little weird to come up with cute names for things like that...Like if I said "bubbled" instead of "burped" or something.

 

A fart is a fart is a fart. :)

Yes. Absolutely. Loud and proud farters in this house. In fact J's first sentence was "Dodo yukky part" Dodo was what he called himself (couldn't pronounce his J's) A camping night is not complete without a fine fart fest around the card table :lol: Yeah, we are classy.:D

[keptwoman]

Oh my word, I'm the thread killer.

[Joyofsixreboot]

A venerable word, appearing in the oldest known round in English. Surely as classical homeschoolers we should be encouraging our children in ancient verb usage.

 

That's it, I'm having the kids call it uerteþ.

[Peela]

Oh my that is the least of my problems, what to call it! Its a fart. Thats easy. Its getting them to stop doing them all over the place, or as my son has been known to do, sit on my lap for a cuddle and do one. My irritation with him does nothing to quell his immense mirth!

Around this house the father sets the tone of the house and its....well, not just noisy but smelly. I have no hope when the father still finds it hilarious. I have asked for a 3 metre safe zone for farts and a 1 metre one for loud burps, for myself, but it's not working very well.

 

I think a good sense of humour goes a long way and I am glad my own birth family werent hung up about it. It wasnt a big deal. But I am guessing dh was told off a lot...hence the glee. Even my dd thinks the toilet humour around here is hilarious, and I dont want to be the old fogey so I have stopped making a fuss. Life is too short to get all upset over such things, especially such things that cause so many people such hilarity!

[Peela]

Now I am the thread killer :)

[Jeannie in NJ]

took ds to the dr. monday for a sick visit. One of his symptoms was an upset stomach. While the dr. was examining ds, she turned to me and asked "What term does your family use for passing gas?" I said toot and so she asked ds had he been tooting a lot lately. It was kinda funny but I did appreciate that she asked me what term we used? She is my kids favorite dr. out of the 9 doctors in the practice.

[justamouse]

no one's mentioned crop dusting :tongue_smilie:

 

that would be farting while walking ;) especially when in an office or store

[Kirch]

no one's mentioned crop dusting :tongue_smilie:

 

that would be farting while walking ;) especially when in an office or store

 

Forgot this--some of my dh's (not him, thankfully!) family calls it a spider barking. :001_huh:

[cin]

It's called, "Awwww...dad!" around here.

 

 

Not sure where it came from, but around it's 'Yeah, we get to go the bookstore' Which, if we actually DID go to the bookstore as often as dad produced, we'd NEVER leave. Hey, at least my kids enjoy the bookstore (even if it is for the treats :001_smile: )

[Impish]

It never bothered me until I heard my MIL say it to my baby girl. Picture a strong Greek accent, rolling R's and serious nauseating baby-talk: "oh kookla, you fahrted! Neh, you can fahrt! Good girl, neh, that was a beek fart!" :glare: It still makes me cringe.

:lol:

...OMG! :lol::lol::lol: I wish I could actually hear you mimic that cause even on the screen it looks like it was hilarious.

I've heard it. At volume. Its something else :lol:

Hey, that's crazy, my ID name for several game sites is AirBiscuit and I thought it was original! I had no idea it was an 80's thing! Man, I'm so in the dark!

 

Must be another regional thing, cause I've never heard that term either.

[Rich with Kids]

This is one my family uses...

 

 

Klassy, eh?

[skirch]

Forgot this--some of my dh's (not him, thankfully!) family calls it a spider barking. :001_huh:

:lol:Never heard that one! One of the perks of never having lived around the family. ;)

[specialmama]

I like the crop dusting. My mom is a super crop duster :lol:

[MissKNG]

We use "toot". I think fart is an ugly word and actually so did my parents - we called it a "whopper" when growing up.

[Miss Sherry]

It never bothered me until I heard my MIL say it to my baby girl. Picture a strong Greek accent, rolling R's and serious nauseating baby-talk: "oh kookla, you fahrted! Neh, you can fahrt! Good girl, neh, that was a beek fart!" :glare: It still makes me cringe.

:lol::lol: Oh, that's funny.

Since you dislike the word so much, you may want to substitute it with the phrase passing gas. I think it's funny how some kids find the word f@rt so humorous. :001_huh::001_smile: