[Ads-l] "the trots (a British colloquialism for diarrhea)"

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Mar 17 20:11:22 UTC 2015


I could imagine a whole spectrum, depending on the urgency and severity--from the trots to the canter to the gallop (and no, I wasn't thinking of color spectrum)--but the only ones I've heard are the trots and the runs, and I'm not sure the former suggests a milder version than the latter.  But perhaps "trots" is somewhat more British.

LH

> On Mar 17, 2015, at 3:27 PM, Christopher Philippo <toff at MAC.COM> wrote:
> 
> On Mar 17, 2015, at 3:18 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> Isn’t "trots" used in the relevant meaning not only here, but also pretty much anywhere else that English is spoken?
> 
> I think in upstate New York that I have occasionally heard it referred to as the runs but never as the trots.  It seems plausible that it might be a British colloquialism - British understatement for that matter?
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