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

[Jonathan Lighter]

My mother, born a century ago, used to say "runs."

Am pretty sure that the "trots" goes back at least to the American Civil
War but am too lazy to check the files.

JL

On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 4:11 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "the trots (a British colloquialism for diarrhea)"
>
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>
> 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:
> >=20
> > On Mar 17, 2015, at 3:18 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >> Isn=E2=80=99t "trots" used in the relevant meaning not only here, but =
> also pretty much anywhere else that English is spoken?
> >=20
> > 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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