• gerryflap@feddit.nl
    13·
    7 days ago

    So I never really though about this before this post, but the Dutch name is actually really fucking weird. They’re called “pissebedden” here, which is a combination of “pissen” (to pee) and “bedden” (beds). I read that apparently there was a superstition that they would help against bed wetting of you put them in your bed before sleep. I guess that’d help because it’d be hard to sleep with those buggers crawling around in your bed. What’s also weird is that the name isn’t literally “bed wetters” because then the words should be reversed like “bedpissers” or something. So it’s more like “pissybeds” in English.

    Idk what tf they were smoking tbh, but it’s the normal word for them and is even used on Wikipedia. Li they’re talking about the zoetwaterpissebedden (fresh water pissybed) as if this is a reasonable scientific name.

    • Akasazh@feddit.nl
      5·
      7 days ago

      Nice but of Dutch etymology. An interesting tidbit is that they share there name with the French for dandelion (which English word come from another French term ‘dents de lion’ or lions teeth) which are called ‘pissenlit’ (also ‘piss in the bed’)

      This is because the dandelion has a diuretic effect, it makes one urinate. For the woodlouse it’s different, they don’t make you piss the bed, but only make it smell like it. They secrete an ammonia like smell, which smells like piss.

      source (in Dutch).

  • Slovene@feddit.nl
    6·
    7 days ago

    If we had gagaball when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have spent every recess playing with rollypollies.

    • Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.ukEnglish
      3·
      7 days ago

      Hey, I’m from Dorset too. I’ve never heard Chiggy wigs before. I wonder if it’s a very regional or age thing. We called them wood lice.

      • MrStag@lemmy.world
        2·
        7 days ago

        Hello! I grew up on Portland, so perhaps it is very regional. I think we used the term specifically for the large black kind that roll up, the other brown/grey ones that don’t we called Wood Lice too!

        • Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.ukEnglish
          1·
          7 days ago

          Oh I don’t think I’ve seen the large black ones before. I grew up in Poole. Perhaps the black ones are less common here.

  • Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca
    5·
    7 days ago

    Sow bugs, but some kids called them rolly-polleys. I taught my daughter both (as well as wood louse), but as you can imagine, she went with the fun one.