Ash from Arlington, Texas, says her great-aunt would refer to a red bump on one’s tongue as a lie bump. This expression is widespread enough to be used in medical textbooks, although papillitis is the official term, papillae being the anatomical name for “tastebuds.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Tongue Lie Bumps”
Hi there, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Ash. I’m from Arlington, Texas.
And growing up, whenever we would get a painful bump on the side of our tongue, my great-aunt Vera would always call them lie bumps.
Oh.
And, of course, that would make me go through my mind and think, you know, what do I need to fess up about? And I think that was the point.
Right.
But I’d never heard it anywhere else.
And so I just knew that y’all might, if anybody would know, it would be y’all.
Lie bumps.
So you get a red bump, just kind of too much abrasion on your tongue or some food made it raw, something like that, right?
Right.
Or you told a lie.
Or exactly, yeah.
If you were lying about something, it would happen.
Don’t lie to Great Aunt Vera.
No, ma’am.
Did she ever convince you to really spill the beans?
No, I always tried to think of what else would cause this bump because I know that that can’t be true.
They are so common that you will find lie bumps mentioned in lots of medical textbooks.
You’ll find that term itself mentioned.
The medical term for it is papillitis.
They’re caused by sharper, crusty foods that just cause abrasion or rough.
They just debrate the skin of the tongue.
Yeah, and just basically cause some kind of redness.
Yeah, sometimes white bumps, but usually red, yeah.
What was it called?
Papillitis, P-A-P-I-L-L-I-T-I-S.
Yeah, the papillae are the taste buds, right?
Yeah.
So do you think the lye of papillae might be the green spot of the lye?
No, probably not.
Probably not.
It’s probably just a convenient way to get kids.
There’s always all these adult tricks.
Yeah, that’s what it sounds like.
In some folklore books, they do mention that this is a really widespread bit of folklore about these bumps being related to a falsehood being told or lies or something else related to dishonesty.
Throughout the South and African-American culture, again and again and again it comes up.
So it’s not just your family and it’s not just Texas.
It’s throughout hundreds of years, actually.
That actually reminds me of a thing that some cultures do, though they lick a hot spoon and look on your tongue to see if you’re lying.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Wow.
Who does that?
I can’t tell you what culture does it, but I’ve seen it.
Yeah.
I’ve never heard of that.
That’s cool.
Oh, really?
Wait a minute.
I want to have a look at your tongue now.
Really?
Look it up.
Okay.
How do you not know where it is, but you know the story?
Oh, I know bits and pieces of trivia from everywhere, but I really can’t fill in all the pieces all the time.
You know, there’s only so much space.
You should fill in for me the next time I can’t make it to the studio.
You’ve got a tongue as bumpy as an alligator purse, lady.
Oh, I’m honored.
I’ll lick the spoon.
I’ll lick the spoon.
All right.
Thank you for your call.
I really appreciate it.
Okay.
Thanks.
Love your show.
Cheers.
Bye-bye.
Thanks, Ash.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Well, and I bet lie bumps are just so common.
Right.
Everyone has them, right?
Right.
Yeah.
