What’s a tasteful way to refer to one’s rear end? Tushie and tush come from the Yiddish word tuchus. Also spelled tochis and tochas, it is regarded by some folks, such as the New York Times, as “insufficiently elegant.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Tushie, Tush, and Tuchus”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Lisa calling from Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Hi, Lisa.
Welcome.
Hi.
I’m so very excited, first of all, to be on your show.
Well, welcome.
I have a question.
I work with children often, young children, kindergarten age, first grade,
And every day I’m telling them to sit on their tuchus.
Instead of saying but, which sounds so crude, I say sit on your tuchus.
And I say it so often, but I guess I take it for granted I don’t actually know the derivation of the word.
And are you Jewish, perhaps?
I am not Jewish, but for some reason I have a lot of Jewish sayings.
I’ll say shalom or oy. I say oy all the time.
So I don’t know why I’ve incorporated these.
I find that Judaism would be a very interesting religion.
Often I envy their traditions.
So if Tukkos were a Jewish word, I would be so excited.
Well, it’s a Yiddish word, right, Martha?
Yeah.
It comes from a Hebrew word that means under or beneath.
Yeah, like you’re behind.
Yeah.
Oh!
That preposition, yeah.
And what’s doubly interesting to me, I was amazed to discover this.
Tush and tushy, which also mean your bama, your derriere, come from tuchus.
So it’s a variation, a derivative.
Both these words are primarily American, even though they started in Yiddish.
You won’t find them in English in the UK and Australia and South African places like that, usually.
Primarily North Americans, particularly the United States.
And so there are lots of different spellings since it came from Yiddish.
Right, because T-U-C-H-U-S, I think, is probably the most common one.
Our producer, who knows this word because she speaks some Hebrew,
Says tuchus, like that, ch, like that.
But most Americans will just say tuchus.
Tuchus.
I say it with a ch.
Do you?
Yeah.
Get some phlegm in there.
Get the phlegm going in there.
And for some reason, it seems so much more authoritative to say,
I get a better response to the kids if I say, sit on your tuchus.
It sounds so much more like I expect you to do it.
Maybe you think it’s like a magic word.
It’s like abracadabra or something like that.
You sound like a real hard tuchus.
I want to ask about something you said.
You said that butt is so crude.
Why is butt crude for you?
Well, I think it’s probably, I see it as crude based on the audience that I’m using it in front of.
If you were to say it in front of adults, you may get a couple of laughs, but not many.
But if you say but in front of first graders, it’s kind of a crazy response in the room
Because then they go on to all these other words that they can’t say.
I see.
And so I try not to use but.
Yes.
I have a four-year-old.
There is an avalanche of comedy surrounding the word but.
Okay.
I thought that’s where you would say.
There is so much humor just in the word but.
Yeah.
Well, cool, Lisa.
Thanks for sharing with us.
Tukas is Yiddish.
You are using it correctly.
It sounds great.
I’m glad that your kids are understanding it.
Thank you so much.
They all think it’s a really formal term.
Right, right.
They do.
It’s hilarious.
Well, thank you so much for your help.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
All right.
Bye-bye.
It’s almost clinical to them, I guess.
Maybe you think it’s a medical term.
Or a very formal term.
I can just see them, you know.
Mother, my tuchus is hurting.
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