It’s Not a “Pacifier”, It’s a “Soother”
Amy, Nate, and I met up with some Canadian friends a couple of weeks ago, and when we pulled out the pacifier to give to Nate, our friends responded that getting your baby used to a “soother” is a wonderful thing.
I had never heard a “pacifier” referred to as a “soother” before. Upon thinking about it for a moment, I really liked the term.
One definition of the term “pacify” is “to reduce to a state of submission, esp. by military force; subdue”. There’s a forced aspect that sticks in my mind when I hear “pacify”. I suppose that’s somewhat accurate for our use of the pacifier on Nate, but I don’t want to feel that way. I’d rather feel that Nate was self-soothing.
Hence, the term “soother”, I suppose.
Turns out that “soother” is a common term for a pacifier in Canada.
In the UK, they use the term “dummy”.
Being American (or “Southern Canadian” as I sometimes prefer to think), I much prefer “soother” to either “pacifier” or “dummy”, or some of the other US English slang terms, like “binky” or “nukky” or “nuk-nuk”.
So, that’s what we are calling it from now on.
The soother.
It just sounds more tranquil and less forceful to me.
We have told the story of the term to many of our American friends, and none of them had heard the word “soother” either. Perhaps we can start a new trend.
Soothers for all!
Soothers unite!
What do you call your pacifier?
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3 comments:
I've heard the term before, but only because I used to live a stone's throw from the Canadian border.
I also prefer this term, but it's a lost cause to switch over now (from "pacifier"... only "pacifier"... "binky" and "nuk" and everything else gives me a small stroke). Oh well.
"What do you call your pacifier?"
Gin.
Thanks Esri. Now I need a drink! 5:24pm. That would be cocktail hour, wouldn't it? Yes, it would. Gotta go.
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