Comments on: Why do I call a pacifier a "goots"?

Question: Why do I call a pacifier a "goots"?

elvissinatra — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 11:58:01 -0800

Anybody else grow up calling a pacifier, a "goots"? I'm not sure if I'm spelling it correctly, but that's how it sounds (rhymes with boots). I'm not Jewish, but that word sounds Yiddish to me. Now I've got a kid of my own, and everybody thinks I'm crazy because I call it a goots. Is it a name brand? West Michigan Polish/Italian slang? Or what?

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 12:04:53 -0800

I've never heard that term before, but it sounds like Dutch to me.

By: thinkpiece

thinkpiece — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 12:14:41 -0800

Funny, we called them nookies. I have no idea why.

By: JohnnyGunn

JohnnyGunn — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 12:22:56 -0800

Binkies here. Never heard of "goots", but why not call it a goots?

By: elvissinatra

elvissinatra — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 12:27:00 -0800

Thinkpiece, you call it a nookie because of the name brand NUK. I'm guessing there's a similar etymology for goots, but I have no idea what...

By: scody

scody — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 12:40:03 -0800

Huh. I wonder why we called it an "ish," then?

By: Izzmeister

Izzmeister — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 12:41:54 -0800

yiddish, it's not! (its a 'tzumee' in yiddish...!)

By: thinkpiece

thinkpiece — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 12:49:30 -0800

That's right, elvissinatra! It's been a long time, I'd forgotten. NUK became nukkies, then. Thank you.

By: brookeb

brookeb — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 13:18:27 -0800

Tzumee? Where did you get that? I've seen sharopnikel , but no tzumee.

By: unrepentanthippie

unrepentanthippie — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 13:24:46 -0800

Binkie was a brand name back when.

By: Baby_Balrog

Baby_Balrog — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 14:09:34 -0800

WM native here - never heard of the word. Was always a binkie to me.

By: bonheur

bonheur — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 14:12:13 -0800

A friend from Australia calls it a "dummy." I can only remember calling them pacifiers or nuks.

By: nola

nola — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 15:09:33 -0800

my girlfiend is from minnesota, this sounds like something she would call a pacifier, just based on the words she has for other things. anyone other than me never heard of zoobas? or padiddle? anyway i'll ask her about goots, she's bound to know something.

By: Izzmeister

Izzmeister — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 16:15:48 -0800

I got tzumiee from my own vocabulay- I speak yiddish (several dialects.)

never heard of that word (sharopnikel) at all...

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 17:24:42 -0800

Maybe it comes from the French "goût" (a taste). At times it was common to dip a pacifier in something sweet.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 18:56:06 -0800

My wife's family calls it a "geegee".
German?
-Ish?

By: joeblough

joeblough — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 21:07:54 -0800

it might be one of those things that kids make up a name for when they are just learning to talk, and it sticks for that particular family.

for instance our 2nd daughter started calling her pacifier a "meemee" and so now that's what we all call them...

By: nadawi

nadawi — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 21:23:35 -0800

it was also called a nook (from NUK) for me. maybe that's what it was and got chanced to goot.

By: acoutu

acoutu — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 23:24:31 -0800

We called them dummies.

By: The Deej

The Deej — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 02:02:23 -0800

"Bubble" or "binky." So, ya, I'd say with all certainty: you are indeed crazy. ;)

By: Rash

Rash — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:24:53 -0800

Binkie was a brand name back when.

Thanks -- I heard this recently for the first time, and wondered why.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 07:49:56 -0800

OK, I've posted about this (self-link, obviously), so we'll see if the knowledgeable crew of LH readers can come up with anything useful. I'll report back if they do.

By: zadcat

zadcat — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 09:17:09 -0800

My mother always used the word "suce", but I found out later that's French, and in Montreal it's not a surprise for a French expression to be used.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 17:19:58 -0800

Interim report: This comment looks like a promising lead.

Any relation to German (regional, dialectal -- Swabian, I think) "Gutsel", which might be translated as "goodie", maybe? It usually refers to a piece of hard candy, though I wouldn't be surprised if there were dialects that have it with the "pacifier" meaning.
Posted by: Chris Waigl at December 27, 2006 07:14 PM

Note that Gutsel is pronounced "GOOT-sel."

By: snownoid

snownoid — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 20:04:04 -0800

Gutti are Roman baby bottles. There's some information on them that might be helpful here and here, but it's all in German.
Short summary: The word "gutti" comes from Greek "gutta", "drop", pacifiers are still called "Gutzi" or "Gutsi" in some part(s) of Germany.