English

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Noun

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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

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  • belly (referring to abdomen, not stomach)

Translations

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