Nappy or diaper? You've got to hand it to our American cousins!

[Zinaya]

Honestly, isn't there something pathetic about our word "nappy"? When you wear a nappy, I suppose you are "nappied" and the process of being put in one would be called "nappying"?!? Compare that with diaper, diapered and diapering. Much better!

[Elfy]

I prefer nappy myself.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

I prefer "diaper". Although the site could have been "Nightly Nappies"

However, I do wear a "pinafore dress" or an "Alice band" (If I am not waring a tiara). In the US, "knickers" were boys' short pants worn up until about age 6 up to the middle of last century and under my skirts I wear "rubbers" and I like "jelly babies"

[Zinaya]

14 minutes ago, Christine Daryleanne said:

I prefer "diaper". Although the site could have been "Nightly Nappies"

I like that! "Daily Diapers & Nightly Nappies", it would be a great name or a title for a film (movie to our American cousins ) or book.

[Elfy]

Sounds more childish to me. Diaper sounds like a medical thing, nappy sounds like a baby's thing.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

We say "film" but not "cinema"

Maybe that title will appear in Story Time about a girl who visits here Englsih aunt or an English girl who visits her American aunt

[Kaylaindiapers]

Diapers all the way.. Nappy just sounds stupid..

[iluvnappies]

I have always used the word nappy and will always see it as a word associated with babies and toddlers so will always prefer it to diaper. Sorry USA !

[Dirty Diaper/Maxipad Lover]

I personally prefer the word "diaper" for several reasons. Zinaya kind of touched on the main one though, which is that "diapered, diapering" and various other tenses of the word seem to sound more natural (at least to me,) than terms like "nappied/nappying" do. There's also the fact that "nappy" sounds like baby talk for taking a nap, which changes the entire context of a sentence to the effect of "does baby need a nappy?"

12 minutes ago, Zinaya said:

I like that! "Daily Diapers & Nightly Nappies", it would be a great name or a title for a film (movie to our American cousins ) or book.

I have to agree with this though. "Daily Diapers & Nightly Nappies" does sound like the title of a movie, or even a play. (For some reason I'm picturing a varation of "Glenngarry/Glenn Ross" called "Daily Diapers/Nightly Nappies" about advertisers who sell diapers.)

As far as the use of the word "film" vs. the word "movie," it actually depends a bit on the context in the states. "Movie" is probably the most common today having replaced the term "motion picture" which hasn't been widely used since the 1970's. "Film" was interchangeable with either term until about a decade ago when digital video became good enough for use on the big screen. (While there were some major movies shot at least partially with digital equipment as far back as 2002, the technique wasn't nearly as common as it's become, and movies like Episodes II & III of "Star Wars" were shot on cameras in a resolution comparable to what a regular 1080p HDTV displays.) Early on, the term "digital filmmaking" was used to describe this process, but it came with more confusion than people expected. "Where does the film go," was a common question from people who were introduced to so-called "digital film" cameras. This might sound ridiculous, but keep in mind that at the time, "digital video" cameras still used tape, and that digital videotapes had been around for several years, so the idea of "digital film" wasn't as far-fetched at the time as it probably seems. Early "digital films" were basically shot on HD videotape, so when better cameras that could record at resolutions much higher than HDTVs came along and didn't use tape or film, the term "digital cinema" came into use to describe what these new cameras were used for, and "digital cinematography" became the term to describe shooting with them in order to avoid the headache associated with the term "digital film." Around the same time, digital projection started to gain popularity, which lead to a lot of movies that were neither shot on film nor displayed on film, which made some people realize that it probably didn't make sense to keep calling them "films" when no film was involved. While you still occasionally here people use the term "film" the way they use "tape" to describe recording something, (even when no "tape" is involved,) "movie" has become the more common and more accurate term as a whole. Think of it this way, "The H8ful Eight" is a film because it was shot (and distributed) on film. "Toy Story 3" is a movie, because it was created with computers and most (if not all) movie theaters showed it digitally. The new "Star Wars" movie could technically be considered a film, because even though it was usually projected digitally, it was shot on actual film and the IMAX 3D version was shown on film. Oddly enough, the term "cinema" hasn't caught on in the states outside of people who actually make movies and use digital cinema cameras to shoot them, or who create digital cinema packets (the thing that movie theaters show) to distribute them. "Cinema" as a description of where movies are shown is still unheard of here, but oddly enough, it's not uncommon to see "theater" written as shorthand for a movie theater/cinema, and "theatre" used to describe a place used for a live performance of some sort. (Let's here it for mixing American and British English.)

[Apache Raccoon]

I

[Glennie]

I vote for diaper.. when I

[Elfy]

4 minutes ago, Glennie said:

I vote for diaper.. when I

[DL4LIFE]

Diaper it is.

[minachan16]

In the nappy/diaper debate, I go with diaper because 1. I'm American and 2. Instead of "diaper", I call them "diapies" which is cuter (thanks for adding that to my baby-talk lexicon, Rugrats!) and 3. "nappies" is what daddy calls it when it's naptime ("time for nappies") which makes me giggle and I don't want that to change

[Elfy]

If I remember right, the UK used to call them diapers but the word changed to nappy over time.

According to Wikipedia:

"The Middle English word diaper originally referred to a type of cloth rather than the use thereof; "diaper" was the term for a pattern of repeated, rhombic shapes, and later came to describe a white cotton or linen fabric with this pattern.^[2] The first cloth diapers consisted of a specific type of soft tissue sheet, cut into geometric shapes. This type of pattern was called diapering and eventually gave its name to the cloth used to make diapers and then to the diaper itself, which was traced back to 1590s England.^[3] This usage stuck in the United States and Canada following the British colonization of North America, but in Britain the word "nappy" took its place. Most sources believe nappy is a diminutive form of the word napkin, which itself was originally a diminutive"

[Zinaya]

Some great answers here! It is good to see that, if you will excuse my phrasing it this way, something was kept pure (nudge, nudge) in the colonies and not in the Old Country. Somehow, we assume it's always the other way around.

[FretaBWet]

They will always be diapers for me too because it's what they were when I was in them in the beginning. But as Shakespeare so brilliantly wrote hundreds of years ago "A diaper by any other name would smell as sweet" or was it feel as comfy.

Hugs,

Freta

[minachan16]

31 minutes ago, Zinaya said:

I take it that by that you mean "because I was brought up in the USA and am used to that word"?

Well, if you want to be snippy about it, yes.

[Zinaya]

1 hour ago, minachan16 said:

Well, if you want to be snippy about it, yes.

Oh no, not at all! I don't suppose you remember Mr Futterman in Gremlins? I just wanted to make sure you didn't mean it his way!

[rusty pins]

I was born in the USA and have always lived here.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

And here is the etymology of "Diaper"

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=diaper

[Dubious]

nappy = pacifier

[littlekat]

I always preferred nappy, but when talking about adult ones for any medical non little reasons I use diaper.
Although one of my friends keeps calling them dips, which I've started doing to, here dips are a kind of sweet or you know dips, so its easier to talk about in public ^^

[atnboy20]

I've always like diaper because when you say diaper there's no mistaking what you said. A nappy sounds like a cloth or something.

[Hookedondiapers]

My wife and I each use both terms about equally.