eye crust (sleep, rheum)

panjabigator

panjabigator

Senior Member
San Francisco
Am. English
I don't even know what it's called in English. What do you call the "crust" or whatnot that is in the eye upon waking up? Is their a word for it? Some people refer to it as "sleep" but I don't know for sure.

In Hindi and Panjabi, it's /giDDaa/.
 
    • elpoderoso

    elpoderoso

    Senior Member
    English
    panjabigator said:
    I don't even know what it's called in English. What do you call the "crust" or whatnot that is in the eye upon waking up? Is their a word for it? Some people refer to it as "sleep" but I don't know for sure.

    In Hindi and Panjabi, it's /giDDaa/.
    Click to expand...
    I've always known it as ''sleep'', so you could say '' I have some sleep in my eye''
     
    T

    TheWonderfulShoe

    Member
    Mixed-Dialect English
    I most commonly hear it in English as "sleep" as well, but also "sand" is heard a lot...my boyfriend is Jamaican and says they say something that sounds like "mah-tah", but he always thought it was spelled "matter", which made sense to him...but now he wonders if maybe it's the same from Tagalog "muta"...=P "Since Patwah is a very mish-mash language". The nicer word for a language of blends like that is a 'creole language', I think. =P
     
    Thomas1

    Thomas1

    Senior Member
    polszczyzna warszawska
    In Polish we say:
    śpioch (very often in the plural--śpiochy)
    zaropiałki
    or
    ropa

    Tom
     
    L

    linguist786

    Senior Member
    Blackburn, England
    English, Gujarati & Urdu
    In Gujarati we call it:

    popraa
    (or to be more specific: aankho ni horay popraa - "crust near the eyes")

    "popraa" literally means something like "crust". We also use this term for the rice that is stuck on the sides of a pot which have gone really hard. Some people like to eat this type of rice.
     
    O

    olivinha

    Senior Member
    Madriz
    Português, Brasil
    A friend from California had a very cute name for it (which he said he learned in pre-school): sleep.
    Andy would say, "You have sleep in your eyes."
    O
     
    S

    Sidjanga

    Senior Member
    German;southern tendencies
    Hi everyone,

    in German, the crusty/sandy stuff you find in your eyes in the mornings is normally called Sand(körnchen) ("wee grain of) sand" (pronounciation: [zant]).

    There is even the lovely figure of the Sandmann (or Sandmännchen [diminutive form]), the "sand man", who visits little children in the evenings to help them (or make them) go to sleep, precisely by putting a tiny quantity of sand into their eyes (it might not seem a very pleasant idea, but it obviously works ;)).

    _________________
    PS: On the other hand, funnily, the saying "Jemandem Sand in die Augen streuen" (to put sand into someone's eyes) means to delude or mislead them.
     
    Last edited:
    panjabigator

    panjabigator

    Senior Member
    San Francisco
    Am. English
    I realize now looking back that the spelling I provided in Hindi was incorrect. Should be गिड्डा. At least that's how we say it in my family, but now that I think of it, I'm not too certain if this is Hindi or Panjabi.

    Any ideas on Persian, Urdu, Marathi, or Hindi?
     
    T

    ThomasK

    Senior Member
    (near) Kortrijk, Belgium
    Belgium, Dutch
    It would be interesting to hear what metaphors are being used. I suppose the crust refers to bread or something else that has been baked.

    I found the word “rheum”, “eye mucus”. See more at http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/597/.

    BY the way, I really wonder whether we can call it simply 'slaap' in Dutch. I know we say that we 'rub sleep out of our eyes', but I would think I do it even if I do not know have the 'crust' on my eyes. I think the rubbing is a metaphor for getting rid of the sleepy feeling. But I hear the English use 'sleepers'...

    We do use 'zand in de ogen strooien', but I thought that was metaphorical language for obliging one to close the eyes... I may be wrong though, I admit.
     
    P

    pepperone

    New Member
    Budapest
    Hungarian
    From the Spanish translation by Dr.Quizá I understood that it is
    csipa
    in Hungarian.
    (I didn't realize it before, because of the unexpectedly nice expressions other nations use for that.)
     
    T

    ThomasK

    Senior Member
    (near) Kortrijk, Belgium
    Belgium, Dutch
    Too bad, I want too much. I was thinking it might have referred to the 'crust' on the outside of a loaf of bread or something. Just funny that you borrowed that particular little word from Turkish - or is it because it is a little word ? (You can consider this a rhetorical question - or answer it)
     
    T

    ThomasK

    Senior Member
    (near) Kortrijk, Belgium
    Belgium, Dutch
    I found that officially it is called 'rheum' and the English Wikipedia gives quite some synonyms:
    eye gunk, sleepydust, sleepy boogers, eye discharge, eye goop, eye crud, eye jelly, eye crust, eye bogeys, eye boogers, eye-sand, cockapia, optical crustaceans, sleepy dirt, bug dust
    Click to expand...

    Interesting how the Sandman story is/ was used to account for that..
     
    apmoy70

    apmoy70

    Senior Member
    Attica, but of Thessalian origin
    Greek
    In Greek it's «τσίμπλα» ['t͡simbla] (fem.) < Byzantine Gr. «σίφλα» síphla (fem.) = «τσίφλα» tsíphla (fem.) after a dialectal phenomenon in Modern Greek called "tsitacism" (the palatalization of «σ» [s] to «τσ» [t͡s]) --> blemish, eye crust < Classical adj. «σιφλός, -ὴ, -όν» sīpʰlós (masc.), sīpʰlḕ (fem.), sīpʰlón (neut.) --> spongy, soft (with obscure etymology).
     
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Top