Post by Mike LOn Sun, 17 Jun 2012 20:36:45 +0100, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)"
Post by Peter Duncanson (BrE)On Sun, 17 Jun 2012 16:06:11 +0100, "John & Carol Benney"
Post by John & Carol BenneyThis word seems to be used several times in any given issue of
the Times. The last time I visited my doctor's surgery, there it
was in an informational presentation about bowel cancer.
I expect we all know quite a few synonyms for it, so why this
almost invariable use of the most childish word?
Gilbert Basset
Possibly because the alternatives are either too technical or
potentially offensive.
The word "poo" is well-known and understood, and, perhaps because it is
childish in origin, less potentially offensive than "crap" or "shit".
"Faeces" is probably too technical to be generally understood, and
"excrement" perhaps fails on both counts: not widely known and
potentially offensive.
Of other near-synonyms we don't use the words "dung" and "manure" when
talking about human excrement.
I think it's part of the campaign to treat the population as dimwitted
children. "Poo" (they won't even give us credit for knowing how to
spell "pooh")
I'd say that "poo" is pretty much the standard spelling in the US.
In the OED, four of the six quotations as a mass noun and all four of
the quotations as a count noun are "poo".
Post by Mike Lis media-wide now. There was never any difficulty in understanding
"dung" or "droppings" for animal shit; and I reckon anybody who
needs baby-talk on a health poster probably can't read the words
"bowel" or "cancer" anyway, so why not stick with "faeces" when it's
the human product?
Or "stool" or "excrement" or "solid waste" or "excreta" or any of the
other terms that people don't tend to actually use when talking about
the stuff.
We don't know the context in which it was seen (other than that it was
at a doctor's office), but I suspect that you have essentially three
choices for talking about it:
1. You can use a Very Formal Technical Medical Term, conveying a
Very Formal Medical Situation in which We Are The Experts. And
possibly scaring the [pick your term] out of patients.
2. You can use an "adult" term, like "shit" or "crap", and risk
offending patients who (even though they may use a different
adult term) regard the one you chose as offensive.
3. You can use a "childish" term, like "poo" or "poop", and hide
behind "Yeah, I know, but we can't risk offending people with
more delicate sensibilities than yours".
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