Is it rude?

[heger47]

Hi, everybody!
I just received the last newsletter and have found under NEW SLANG The runs
The description is :If someone has the runs, they have diarrhoea (diarrhea).
My question is, is it rude to say someone has the runs?

Regards!
heger47

[Horsa]

Its considered more humourous than rude. It doesn't usually give rise to offence.

[Anglika]

It's a pretty standard euphemism. Certainly not regarded as a rudity.

[mfwills]

I think it is more often something you might say about yourself rather than about someone else. Whether it is viewed as rude really depends on your relationship to the afflicted person, and to whom you're saying it.

[Barb_D]

Just as a side note: One thing I have learned since I started participating in ESL forums is that other cultures are FAR more comfortable talking about bodily functions than we are in the US or the UK.

Unless you know the person VERY well, there's little likelihood of discussing this at all. If I had to say something, I'd be more likely to say something like "A bit of tummy trouble" or "a stomach flu."

I wouldn't find it rude if you used that phrase with me, but I'd wonder why on earth you thought I should know it.

[poolofmire]

"Having the runs" is a slang expression but not vulgar like other slang expressions are. But like much slang, it can only be used with people you know; strangers might take offense. It is a funny expression more than anything :)

[susiedqq]

Other expressions include:
Running around or running off at the mouth -
but these don't have anything to do with bodily functions

[ladybird987]

Just as a side note: One thing I have learned since I started participating in ESL forums is that other cultures are FAR more comfortable talking about bodily functions than we are in the US or the UK.

Unless you know the person VERY well, there's little likelihood of discussing this at all. If I had to say something, I'd be more likely to say something like "A bit of tummy trouble" or "a stomach flu."

I wouldn't find it rude if you used that phrase with me, but I'd wonder why on earth you thought I should know it.

You see, it's much different when you express yourself in a foreign language. It takes years to get the feeling. Like feeling the difference between formal and informal, offensive, slang etc. I bet many of us never say much about their body functions in everyday life. I would say at most "stomach problems".
It's just language classes, when you have to speak rubbish, just to use the language and to learn it. It's dictionary - a bad one, or badly used.

[Soup]

Hi, everybody!
I just received the last newsletter and have found under NEW SLANG The runs
The description is :If someone has the runs, they have diarrhoea (diarrhea).
My question is, is it rude to say someone has the runs?

Regards!
heger47

I agree with the other posters, as well as with their humble and learned advice, specifically about knowing the person before deciding to use "body (parts) slang".

My aunt, for example, uses the euphemism hershey squirts to refer to the runs.
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[ficklefiend]

My aunt, for example, uses the euphemism hershey squirts to refer to the runs.

Oh dear that is.. descriptive.

If I'm calling work or something I'll say "upset stomach", that's a more polite euphemism. Saying you have the runs isn't rude, just more vulgar.