tummy

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:

     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).