[Artemesia Posts: 4,527 Status: Offline WWW]

Where I live in Canada, when you're cold and get bumpy skin we usually say goosebumps, but I've also read in books the terms goose pimples and goose flesh. Are any of these more common in the US? Particularly the east coast. The setting is fictional (picture book) but it's a play on a real city name on the northeast coast.

I know the terms can also be used when your skin prickles when you're scared, so are any of these also used for one but not the other? I'm looking for when you get cold.

thanks!!

[olmue Posts: 4,266 Status: Offline WWW]

I saw goosebumps. I have heard people say goose pimples, but it sounds sort of old-fashioned to me.

I was born in NJ (and have lived all over since), but most of my speech peculiarities come by way of my Idaho mother. I'm not sure where the goosebumps come from.

[wolfie712 Posts: 269 Status: Offline Teacher, Writer, Up-All-Nighter WWW]

Everyone I know says, "goosebumps" when they're talking about being cold and/or scared.

[Artemesia Posts: 4,527 Status: Offline WWW]

thanks, guys! I'll think I'm good to stick with goosebumps then! I've been fooled before thinking things that were common sayings here must be there, too! Who knew toques and poutine aren't universal, eh?  (they should be!!)

[Jaina Posts: 2,908 Status: Offline Just keep typing, just keep typing . . .]

Goosebumps here (middle of the east coast).  I think I've only heard goose pimples rarely (on TV maybe?) and goose flesh in books set in the UK?

[Helen Posts: 250 Status: Offline WWW]

We call them goosebumps or chicken skin.

[Ruth Donnelly Posts: 699 Status: Offline WWW]

Everyone I know says goosebumps. I've never heard chicken skin in the US, but that's what it's called in French (chair de poule).

[Khanada]

I've READ "goose pimples" but never actually HEARD anything besides "goosebumps". I grew up in eastern NY and now live in western NY.

[Larissa Posts: 917 Status: Offline Larissa WWW]

I've READ "goose pimples" but never actually HEARD anything besides "goosebumps".

This.  And also, I HATE "goosepimples" because it sounds gross to me. lol

[Artemesia Posts: 4,527 Status: Offline WWW]

hehe yes, it does sound gross. flesh is also a bit ooky sounding.

it's weird, because I have read both those terms in books, but have never heard anyone say them...which is why I wondering if maybe it was a term used regionally?

[KatyD Posts: 904 Status: Offline www.katyduffield.com WWW]

In the South, we say either goosebumps or chill bumps.

[LeslieG Posts: 220 Status: Offline WWW]

Goosebumps here, too, by way of the Northeast, California, and Pacific Northwest. R.L. Stine probably helped make it pretty universal.

[jojohn Posts: 217 Status: Offline Perserverance]

I am Midwestern and say goosebumps (I thought it was one word like the books but maybe I'm wrong . . . )

My husband is Jamaican and says gooseflesh.

[Artemesia Posts: 4,527 Status: Offline WWW]

Interesting that it's gooseflesh in Jamaica!

I think it is goosebumps all one word, at least no red squiggly line appears when I type it that way!

[jeffman]

I remember hearing goose pimples when I was a kid. It seems like the sort of thing my mom would say. Goosebumps is all I say now, and all I remember hearing for a long time. Goose flesh sounds like something I've only read. It also sounds like food. "Ebenezer! Come eat your goose flesh before I give it to Tiny Tim!"

[ChristinefromCorona Posts: 828 Status: Offline]

I read a book from the 1960s where a character said he was so nervous, he had "goose pimples on my duck bumps."    

Yeah, goosebumps is most common now. R.L. Stine used that as the title of his horror series, too.   

[Artemesia Posts: 4,527 Status: Offline WWW]

I read a book from the 1960s where a character said he was so nervous, he had "goose pimples on my duck bumps."    

lol, that sounds a little rude!


yeah, I'm familiar with Stine's series, which is why I was wondering if that term seemed to be associated more with scaredy bumps now.

[Z-cat]

I vote for goosebumps too. Though I have heard just plain "chills".
I'm in southern WI, if the northern midwest hasn't weighed in yet!

[writermom Posts: 2,111 Status: Offline Wishin' and hopin']

Growing up in Texas, it was always goosebumps. Now in Florida, I have heard both goosebumps and goose pimples, but I'm with LaHa. Goose pimples sounds gross.

[Liz Straw Posts: 1,084 Status: Offline That was a yummy book!]

Indiana chimes in with --- goosebumps

lived in Tennessee for twenty years and often heard chill bumps, but if you were afraid of something, it wouldn't be chill bumps!  Living in a metropolitan area where many non-native southerns began to move in, goosebumps became the more common word. 

Then there is the more descriptive, "that makes the hairs on my arm stand up!"

[Tori Posts: 513 Status: Offline Italy...Intrigue...Limoncello...a Bit of Romance.. WWW]

Everyone I know says goosebumps. I've never heard chicken skin in the US, but that's what it's called in French (chair de poule).

Actually, in Hawaii, people joking around might say, "Chicken skin" -- as in, "I really got chicken skin!" (Hey, I really had goosebumps"!)   

Aloha,
Tori

[MysteryRobin Posts: 810 Status: Offline]

Dude - goosebumps. Everything else gives me the willies!

[mrh Posts: 4,687 Status: Offline www.marciahoehne.com WWW]

My mom said goose pimples, but I thought it was gross then and still do. I've never actually heard anyone SAY goose flesh. Goosebumps it is.

[Artemesia Posts: 4,527 Status: Offline WWW]

Then there is the more descriptive, "that makes the hairs on my arm stand up!"

thanks Liz, lol, but it's a humorous picture book with fowl in it, who don't have arms or hair  , so I wanted to have the bird reference with goose to make a play on! 

thanks for the info everyone!!

[Artemesia Posts: 4,527 Status: Offline WWW]

Dude - goosebumps. Everything else gives me the willies!

yeah, but if I was going for willy giving, then they'd be perfect!! 

[Franzilla Posts: 1,146 Status: Offline Gah! WWW]

It's called chicken skin in Spanish (piel de gallina) and goose skin in German (gänsehaut). Now I'm wondering what it's called in countries where there are no chickens or geese.

And did you know that it's the same physical response that makes a porcupine's quills rise? That's his version of goosebumps.

[Helen Posts: 250 Status: Offline WWW]

Maybe in Eskimo goosebumps translates to 'penquin pili'.

[Franzilla Posts: 1,146 Status: Offline Gah! WWW]

Maybe in Eskimo goosebumps translates to 'penquin pili'.

Ha ha! Yes! I am going to have to find out...

[ruecole Posts: 475 Status: Offline MG Writer WWW]

Presuming, of course, that Eskimos even know what penguins are. (Hint: there are no penguins in the arctic!)

Rue

[Helen Posts: 250 Status: Offline WWW]

This is true....all those years of watching "The Pebble and the Penguin"  with my daughters...I didn't retain a fact!  Now I am going to get distracted researching penguins! arrgghhhh!