How to make yourself understood in an emergency

When you are IN the situation where you really, really need to relieve yourself through your uppermost intestinal opening, knowing how to express your need is crucial. It is recommended that you read and learn the following words by heart, so that next time you need them they'll be able to leave your mouth before anything else does.

I have tried grading the words from the acceptable language you can use for emptying your stomach on the business class of any trans-Atlantic flight to the more rudish language you would use when travelling drunk with a minor bus company.

I would very much like it if people around the world could provide me with further matching expressions from their languages. If you can add to my collection, through GIFs or preferrably by snailmailing me more packages for puking (unused, PLEASE!), that would give you a very special place in my heart.


Norwegian section:

Sickness bag = Spypose
To explain what happens politely = Å rope på elgen
To feel sick = Å være kvalm
To empty the chest = Å tømme brøstet

English, tasteless section:

Blowing chowder(/chunks)
Hork
Ralph
Playing the whale
Praying to the porcelain gods
Fertilizing the porcelain
Tossing your cookies
Rerun brunch
Shooting gut rockets
Technicolor Yawn
File the bile
The liquid laugh
Shouting "EUROPE" at the sink

"I'm about to...
- blow chunks in technicolor.
- spew forth with great purpose.
- create a new addition to the Great Lakes - only cleaner.
- add some frogmen to the porcelain ocean.
- sing the spews.
- visit cousin Rolf at the lake of aque blue water."

Talking with Ralph on the Big White Phone.
Hey, when you lose breakfast while engaging in ice sports, is that a curl hurl?

And then there's of course the nice touch some of the cars carry:

And here is hURL which is the most impressive collection of Vommy-Vords I have seen this far. Keep mailing me new words in other languages, though!

Australian


To/a "chunder" (both noun and verb). This supposedly comes from seasickness suffered by early migrants on the ships bringing them to Australia. When about to vomit from the upper decks they would cry "Watch under!" before letting go. This soon became shortened to the word used today.

Brazilian Portuguese


Chinese:


Vomiting = "Tu", said in a rapid downward change in pitch. (Sort of illustrative.)

Danish:


Pretty much anything spoken in Danish sounds like some kind of puking, but the following are the technical slang terms for it anyway:

To speak in the big, white telephone = At tale i den store, hvide telefon.
To speak to Ulrik = At snakke med Ulrik (which is a fairly common Danish name, which sounds ESPECIALLY hurly when it's pronounced by a Dane)
To throw a cake = At kaste en kage.


Dutch:


To puke = kotsen, braken, overgeven, spuien
Je eten twee keer zien = To see your food twice
Ik denk dat ik moet kotsen = I'm really feeling sick now


Finnish:


To vomit : Vomit (noun) :

French:


Mal-de-mer = Puking as a consequence of travelling, originally by boat, but it is used for hurling on a plane or a bus as well.
Cuvette buhlasteeers = Toiletseat blasters.
Appeler Ralph dans le grand telephone blanc. = To call Ralph in the big white phone.
Gerber = To puke
Vomir = To puke
Poser un renard = To lay down a fox
J'ai les dents du fond qui baignent = The teeth in the back of my mouth are soaking wet

Hebrew

To vomit = Lehakiy

Korean:


Tohada = Vomit
Misik Misik Hada = I feel like vomiting. Notice that "Misik" is pretty closely related to "Me sick!" linguistically.
Olida = To vomit (literally: Move upwards)

The Koreans have a lot of medical tricks. Here's Korea's best kept secret: Put a piece of anti muscle-pain pad on your belly. It will keep travel sickness away in any conditions up to, but not including, typhoons at sea. Another traditional way to keep that hurling feeling away is to massage down your left arm towards the fingers, and then tie the first knuckle of the thumb so that blood is trapped within it. Then use a need to puncture your thumb at the knuckle (a very small hole is needed), so that you can see a dark drop of blood. It works great for both air and sea sickness as well as against severe indigestion. I have no idea whatsoever who came up with this stuff in the first place.


Swedish:


Tala i den stora vita telefonen = Talk into the big, white phone.
Ringa hem = Call home
Köra hem = Go home
Kräkas = To vomit
Att tilbe porslinsguden = To worship the porcelain god
Lägga maräng = Make some uhm... food
Lägga pizza = To make pizza
Köra buss = To drive the bus


Contributors to the list and the collection:
bct@pvv.unit.no
Last modified: Tue Jul 5 10:49:07 CEST 2005