What's the deal with "plushies"

[supercas29]

Honestly... I want to know why so many people on here call their stuffed animals plushies. Is there a reason for it, other than the fact that it's just another word for stuffed animal or toy? Help me out cause without knowing... I just kinda get creeped out every time I read a comment left by somebody whose snuggling their plushie. Just doesn't sound right to me.

I personally have my wabbit and my ghost that I favor, and then lots of other stuffed animals... but Idunno, to use the term plushie for my stuffed toys would kinda set me to think that plushie was an icky sex word or something. Maybe I'm just being silly... but I wanna know.

 

[Emileigh]

Well, I usually call my stuffed animals plushies because it's easier to type out instead of stuffed animal, and well...stuffed animals are plush, and plushies is a cute word ^^

 

[BromeTeks]

Well, I usually call my stuffed animals plushies because it's easier to type out instead of stuffed animal, and well...stuffed animals are plush, and plushies is a cute word ^^

:whs0be:

Yeah, I Particularly agree with the plushie is a cute word bit.

 

[starshine]

I actually kinda hate the word plushie, and when I first started seeing everyone say it I was like "WHATTHEFRACKK!" I called mine Stuffed Animals, or Stuffies, I have my entire life. I have, however, gotten used to calling them plushies because at least everyone understands me when I say that.

But yeah, I don't favor the word, and I don't use it irl.

 

[T00L]

I actually kinda hate the word plushie, and when I first started seeing everyone say it I was like "WHATTHEFRACKK!" I called mine Stuffed Animals, or Stuffies, I have my entire life. I have, however, gotten used to calling them plushies because at least everyone understands me when I say that.

But yeah, I don't favor the word, and I don't use it irl.

Same

 

[supercas29]

*smiles* thank you Abigail.

 

[DLGrif]

I can understand calling them "stuffed animals" or "stuffies" much more, it does make sense. Oddly enough I've always heard them called "plushies", so that is the natural term I use. I suppose the idea is that they feel plush. To add though, I don't really see how "plushie" conjures more or less sexual connotations as "stuffie", since they both end with the suffix -ie.

 

[starshine]

Eh, it's like a difference between saying Nappy and Diaper... They mean the same thing, it's just a matter of what you grew up with. And I've known several British people who say "Diaper" just because that's what most everyone else says on the net, 'Specially when writing stories.

 

[Harano]

For what it's worth....

plush   /plʌʃ/ [pluhsh]
noun, adjective, -er, -est.
–noun 1. a fabric, as of silk, cotton, or wool, whose pile is more than 1/8 inch (0.3 cm) high.
–adjective 2. expensively or showily luxurious: the plushest hotel in town
3. abundantly rich; lush; luxuriant: plush, rolling lawns.


I believe 'plushy' refers to the material, only with a cutesy Y on the end. Kind of like a teddy bear. I guess calling it a tedd bear wouldn't sound right. Stuffy is the same thing, only it's referancing the innards and not the 'skin' of the toy.


I'd have to say it's just regional dialect variations. Some places it's soda. Other places it's pop. When it was created, it was soda-pop, as in soda water, with pop(sicle) flavoring. I remember asking about soda at a market in ohio, and some guy (probably being smart-assish at the same time, but he could've been dumb) points me to the baking needs isle... for baking SODA.


Also, some people call it a sub. Some call it a hoagie, or a hero. Up northeast it's called a grinder. I have no idea why, my best guess is shredded lettuce looks like it came out of a grinder, and 98% of these sandwiches are made with some on it. Then there's those old song lyrics.... "You say tomato, and I say tomatto. You say potato, and I say potatto"


I find nothing wrong with the word 'plush' or 'plushie'. Though I do think the 'plushiephiles' might've sullied that word a bit for anyone who knows about them and might otherwise use the word in casual conversation.

 

[supercas29]

*laughs* thanks for the research. I was just curious on why everybody on here tended to say it more often than not. I get that people have their blankies because I do too, and their pacis and everything... just plushie in my mind has an eerie ring to it.

Like calling something that's damp moist. What in the world kind of word is moist? say it out loud. Say moist all by itself. It sounds yuck. Same for me with plushie I guess.

 

[Takashi]

Well, I usually call my stuffed animals plushies because it's easier to type out instead of stuffed animal, and well...stuffed animals are plush, and plushies is a cute word ^^

That sums it up right there.

 

[Hex]

[font="Calibri,Arial"]In RL, where I live everyone calls them teddys (even if they aren't bears). On this site, people just use plushies as it's the most common word and so it causes less confusion.[/font]

 

[Trevor]

Like calling something that's damp moist. What in the world kind of word is moist? say it out loud. Say moist all by itself. It sounds yuck. Same for me with plushie I guess.

Depends on the situation. Cakes are moist. You tell someone their cake is damp and they're not going to be too pleased to hear it. Moist can be positive or negative, while damp is rarely positive. Different tools for different jobs.

I use plushie, but I pretty much only use it here as it's a community convention.

 

[Charlie]

I call them 'teddies'. I don't know if that's a British thing or if it's just me.

Yes, all animals regardless of whether they are bears or not.

'Plushies' sounds strange to me, so does 'paci' (which reads like a racist word for me ) but I'm used to it by now. Firefox says that 'Plushies' is spelt wrong, so it's not just that we use an other word, we don't have the word at all.

 

[mizzycub]

I use what words like 'plushies' and 'paci' and 'diaper' only in a TBDL context. For me these are americanisms. I would usually end up saying 'teddies' whether it was a bear or not. Or maybe sometimes 'cuddly toy'. I've just sort of picked them up - I swap between americanisms on here and what I would actually say quite easily, though it was difficult to begin with. I still probably forget and revert to my British English way of speaking sometimes, but just fail to notice.

'Plushies' I imagine comes from the fact that they are plush. The addition of 'ie' or 'y' is common for words used around little kids and stuff, people seem to think it makes the word cute. You just have to look at the nicknames little kids use to see how many of them end in 'y' like that.

 

[Nam Repaid]

I too prefer stuffies over plushies especially since mine aren’t plush.

MS Word’s spell checker doesn’t like either word but does change plushie to plushy and stuffie to stuffy. Sounds like a room with bad air or an uptight old man.

Nam

 

[teddy564339]

When I was a kid, we always called them stuffed animals. That's what my mom and brother always called them.

I had never even heard the word "plushie" until I got into this community.

So I think for me..."stuffed animal" makes it seem like it's just a toy. That's the way non *B/DL's view them.

Like others have said, plushie is a cute word...and for me, it's a word I associate with *B/DLism, even babyfurism.

For me, though...I still just like the idea of teddy bears. Even the phrase "teddy bear" is just really classic and cute to me. The idea of someone having a teddy bear seems even cuter than someone having a plushie.

Words are funny like that...I don't know why, but some just make me feel things that others don't.

 

[Fire2box]

I always call mine stuffed animals in real life but here I call them plushies since its just easier.

 

[ShippoFox]

I call them plushies or stuffed animals. Plushie just sounds like more of a cute word. It's not a sexual word at all.

 

[AbbeyJunction]

to me, plushies sounds cuter. thats the only reason ^^;