tummy

English

Etymology

Imitating a child's attempt to say stomach, via archaic colloquialism stummy. Compare twee and pasghetti for similar phonetic reductions.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʌ.mi/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmi

Noun

tummy (plural tummies)

1. (colloquial, often childish) Stomach or belly.

   Synonym: belly

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "So I broke away early this mornin', gave my guard a kick in the tummy that laid him out, and sprinted for the camp."

   • 2013, “Jubilee Street”, in Warren Ellis, Nick Cave (lyrics), Push the Sky Away, performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds:

     I got love in my tummy and a tiny little pain / And a ten ton catastrophe on a 60 pound chain

   • 2019 December 16, Chesca & J Hause, “The Lies”, in Litter Box Comics‎^[1]:

     Oh man —pal! You didn't swallow that gum, did you?? It stays in your tummy for seven years and all the other bad stuff sticks to it and then a doctor has to cut it out with an axe!

   1. (US, slang) Protruding belly, paunch.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:paunch

   2. (euphemistic) In reference to where a baby is carried, the abdomen, or specifically the womb, especially of a woman, but also of animals in general (usually mammals).

Derived terms

• jiffy tummy
• gyppy tummy
• tummyache
• tummy button
• tummy time
• tummy tuck

Related terms

• belly (referring to abdomen, not stomach)

Translations

childish language for stomach

• Bulgarian: тумбаче n (tumbače)
• Czech: bříško (cs) n
• Finnish: masu (fi), massu (fi)
• French: bidon (fr) m
• German: Bäuchlein (de) n
• Hungarian: pocak (hu), poci (hu), hasikó
• Icelandic: malli m, mallakútur m
• Italian: pancia (it) f, pancino m
• Japanese: ぽんぽん (ponpon)
• Polish: brzuszek (pl) m
• Russian: живо́тик (ru) m (živótik), пу́зико (ru) n (púziko), брю́шко (ru) n (brjúško)
• Spanish: bidón (es) m
• Turkish: göbüş

belly

• Bulgarian: шкембе (bg) n (škembe)
• Esperanto: ventro (eo), (diminutive) ventreto
• Finnish: maha (fi), vatsa (fi)
• German: Bauch (de) m, (diminutive) Bäuchlein (de) n
• Plautdietsch: Buck (nds) m
• Russian: живо́т (ru) m (živót), пу́зо (ru) n (púzo), брю́хо (ru) n (brjúxo), брю́шко (ru) n (brjúško)
• Spanish: barriga (es) f, (diminutive) barriguita f, bola (es) f
• Tok Pisin: bel (tpi)
• Ukrainian: живі́т (uk) m (žyvít)
• Volapük: bälid (vo), (diminutive) bälidil
• Welsh: bola (cy) m, bol (cy) m