--- title: Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily functions — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily functions», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Our bodies do messy things: they make gas, sweat, get stuck, run, throw up, and every month many women have --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/) / Soft words for hard things: the toilet… # Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily functions Lesson 7 of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school: 22 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/0/) — Our bodies do messy things: they make gas, sweat, get stuck, run, throw up, and every month many women have a period. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/1/) — People feel embarrassed to say these plainly, so they use soft or funny words instead. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/2/) — Polite words like "perspire" or "an upset stomach" sound clean; jokes like "Delhi belly" or "technicolour yawn" laugh the awkwardness away. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/3/) — Vivid example: a sign in a shop says "feminine hygiene products" — it simply means pads and tampons, but the long official name sounds less personal. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/4/) — Knowing these words helps you understand what is really happening — for example that a friend "had an accident" does not mean a car crash. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/5/) — "Pass gas" is a polite American way to say fart. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/6/) — "Toot" is a childish, joking word for a fart. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/7/) — "Let one rip" is slang for fart loudly. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/8/) — "Glow" is an old British joke word for sweat when said about ladies: "Horses sweat, men perspire, ladies glow." - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/9/) — "Perspire" is the polite word for sweat. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/10/) — "Irregular" is a polite way to say constipated, when poo will not come out easily. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/11/) — "The runs" is slang for diarrhoea. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/13/) — "Montezuma's revenge" is a joking American name for diarrhoea caught while travelling, especially in Mexico. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/14/) — "An upset stomach" is a polite way to say diarrhoea or being sick. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/15/) — "Had an accident" often means someone wet or soiled themselves, not a crash. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/16/) — "Be sick" in British English means vomit, not just feel ill. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/17/) — "Throw up" is the everyday word for vomit. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/18/) — "Technicolour yawn" is joking Australian slang for vomit. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/19/) — "Chunder" is Australian slang for vomit. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/20/) — "That time of the month" means a woman's monthly period. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/21/) — "Aunt Flo" is a joking American way to talk about a period; there is no aunt. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/7-wind-sick-and-runs/24/) — "Go potty" means use the toilet, said to young children, mostly in the US. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily functions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/6-toilet-words/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily functions and age and looks](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/8-toilets-and-getting-older/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)