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Do you stub your toe or stump it?


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Stub. Stump doesn't make any sense in this context. A stump is the shortened end of something, like a limb without the foot or hand or a tree stump.

If I stub it too often, I will be left with nothing but a stump. :)

 

Around here people generally stump their toes rather than stub them.

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A stump is the shortened end of something, like a limb without the foot or hand or a tree stump.

 

Here in Ky. they call that a (hmmm not sure how to spell it) a stab. The 'a' is pronounced aw. Not something you do with a knife, but what you say when you see something cute awww.

 

So you could stump your toe on a stab (stawb??).

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Well, I always "stub" my toe. DH on the other hand, "stumps" his. I wonder if it's a geographical thing. I grew up in the NW; he grew up in the SW. I also use "chuck" (as in chucking the wood over the fence or chucking the bad meat) whereas he uses "chunk". I've always just figured it was regional.

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  • 1 year later...
Guest Dave Goodwin

I grew up in the South and we called it 'stump'. It's not that your toe is ever a stump, but you always seem to catch your toe on a stump or something that sticks out like a stump that you don't see. It's while kids playing in the yard and don't see the little 'stump' in the weeds and their toe hits it. I have just never quite understood the term 'stub' for this. I guess you could call it a 'stub' that sticks out of the ground.

 

Also, could it be that a toddler's pronuciation of the word 'stump' would sound like 'stub', because of the as yet unformed ability to properly pronounce words - then it just caught on in some places as 'stub'?

 

Stub just seems odd to me.

 

dave :)

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  • 4 months later...
Guest camille1

Growing up in North Carolina, we stumped our toes .. for me it was usually the right, big toe .. and we stumped them quite often.  Now that I live in Tennessee, my children stub their toes.  We just had this conversation and I laughed when I saw this forum so I had to chime in.  I'm going to stick with stump, no matter where I live because that just sounds right to me.  Limping against the tide, as it were.

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  • 7 years later...

As a child,  I spent a lot of time going barefoot in the summertime. We lived in rural North Carolina. There were no sidewalks out in the country, but we lived on a county road, and our mailbox was across the road from our house. For some reason, I was especially prone to "stumping my toe" when I ran across the road to check the mail. Boy, did it hurt! My hallux would barely heal before I'd stump it again. 

As far as stumping vs stubbing goes, I can only say this. I can't relate the word "stub" to anything that makes sense in the context of injuring one's toe. The verb "stump," however, brings to my mind a sudden stop or an unexpected ability to go further, as in "The librarian was stumped by the child's earnest question." Therefore, when the toe meets an immoveable object, it is stumped. 

(I also ran across this which curiously enough helps to explain my point of view. https://www.dockdoortec.com/blog/what-the-heck-is-stump-out  It equates "stump-outs" with sudden, jarring stops.)

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