What's the scientific term for a booger?

BottomlessCup · Oct 31, 2006

There must be one.

There's 'mucus', but that's more a term for 'snot', which is not the same as a booger. Snot is the runny nose stuff. I suppose a booger is made of snot, but not all snot is a booger.

Anybody know? It's very important.

poetinahat · Oct 31, 2006

Now that, my friends, is a Question!

I don't care what you're researching this topic for, B-Cup. But I must read it. Gimme your PayPal details.

BottomlessCup · Oct 31, 2006

When it's done.

Tornadoboy · Nov 1, 2006

I'm not sure, but when I pick one out, I'll let you know

Ok ok seriously, how about "congealed nasal excretion?"

yuck.

C.bronco · Nov 1, 2006

phlegm

smallthunder · Nov 1, 2006

I just had to give this one a snot ... er, I mean, give this one a SHOT ...

How about: "viscid nasal mucus?"

smallthunder · Nov 1, 2006

C.bronco said:
phlegm

This isn't too far off, but the medical dictionary I checked doesn't link phlegm to the finger-picking nose -- but associates it with the lungs.

I had better stop now, eh what?

wordmonkey · Nov 1, 2006

Crusty nose goblins

kikazaru · Nov 1, 2006

Nostril detritus?

Or according to my kids "snot rockets" - when you sneeze and they shoot out your nose like a couple of scud missles.

It's a good thing I'm dieting because I've just put myself off breakfast.

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Nov 1, 2006

This thread should be used as an example when people say, "You know, there's absolutely nothing you can't learn at Absolute Write."

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Nov 1, 2006

Okay, I confess. After reading all the entries in the thread, I went to look it up. This is what the online thesaurus had to say:

booger: n. Slang: dried nasal mucus; Slang: An item that is unnamed or unnameable...

But the funniest part of the page was the ad at the top from dealtime.com:

"Looking for booger? Compare products, prices and stores!"

smallthunder · Nov 1, 2006

Ol' Fashioned Girl said:
But the funniest part of the page was the ad at the top from dealtime.com:

"Looking for booger? Compare products, prices and stores!"

That's tooooo much!

:ROFL:

JustinThorne · Nov 1, 2006

Hmmm, nothing like a topic on mining for green gold...

How about 'crust'?

JD65 · Nov 1, 2006

there's a name for EVERYTHING

A booger by any other name would not pick the same...

It's actually called a "rhinolith" [rhino = nose; lith = stone]

C.bronco · Nov 1, 2006

nose goblins

Doug Johnson · Nov 1, 2006

If Pulitzer Prize winner Dave Barry uses "booger" I think it's OK for you to use.

eldragon · Nov 1, 2006

I feel sick.

C.bronco · Nov 1, 2006

Sorry to hear it. Are you congested?

smallthunder · Nov 1, 2006

Nope

JD65 said:
A booger by any other name would not pick the same...

It's actually called a "rhinolith" [rhino = nose; lith = stone]

Nope -- that ain't no booger.

A simple Google search shows that:

Rhinoliths are rare. They are calcareous concretions that are formed by the deposition of salts on an intranasal foreign body. The foreign body, which acts as the nucleus for encrustation, can be either endogenous or exogenous. Dessicated blood clots, ectopic teeth, and bone fragments are examples of endogenous matter. Exogenous materials include fruit seeds, plant material, beads, cotton wool, and dental impression material.

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Although the pathogenesis remains unclear; a number of factors are thought to be involved in the formation of rhinoliths. These include entry and impaction of a foreign body in the nasal cavity, acute and chronic inflammation, obstruction and stagnation of nasal secretions, and precipitation of mineral salts. Development and progression are believed to take a number of years.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]
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smallthunder · Nov 1, 2006

Enough from me!

Why, oh why, do I feel COMPELLED to find an answer to this?

Oh, well ...

"NASAL DISCHARGE is any mucus-like material that comes out of the nose."

Hmm ... that doesn't help with the snot vs. booger question.

OK ... then ... further research shows that "Rhinorrhea" is medical terminology for a runny nose and/or what is produced by same ...

so the best medical description I have found so far for what I assume is a "booger" is ...

(drum roll, or honking nose-blowing, please) ...

"pale, boggy turbinate ... rhinorrhea."

That's it. I'm FINISHED with this. I've got to go get a real life now ...

kikazaru · Nov 1, 2006

smallthunder said:
Nope -- that ain't no booger.

A simple Google search shows that:

Rhinoliths are rare. They are calcareous concretions that are formed by the deposition of salts on an intranasal foreign body. The foreign body, which acts as the nucleus for encrustation, can be either endogenous or exogenous. Dessicated blood clots, ectopic teeth, and bone fragments are examples of endogenous matter. Exogenous materials include fruit seeds, plant material, beads, cotton wool, and dental impression material.

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Although the pathogenesis remains unclear; a number of factors are thought to be involved in the formation of rhinoliths. These include entry and impaction of a foreign body in the nasal cavity, acute and chronic inflammation, obstruction and stagnation of nasal secretions, and precipitation of mineral salts. Development and progression are believed to take a number of years.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]
[/FONT]

Gak! So those would be called "Nasal Pearls??"

wordmonkey · Nov 1, 2006

And while we're here, if snot is the runny stuff and a booger is the dry stuff, what do you call those ones that are crusty when you start mining, but then as you extract, they seem connected to some curious slimey alien tentacle? Y'know, the snot/booger combo ones.

C.bronco · Nov 1, 2006

Those are brain boogers, because, so I hear, when one pulls them out it feels as though they are attached to the subject's brain.
And thank you for not letting this thread die, even after the poster concluded his research. I've had one heck of a week and needed the levity.

JD65 · Nov 1, 2006

smallthunder said:
so the best medical description I have found so far for what I assume is a "booger" is ...

"pale, boggy turbinate ... rhinorrhea."

Okay - so I'm not completely convinced that a rhinolith doesn't include an already-picked nasal mucus hunk. (see wiktionary's definition: "A piece of dried nasal mucus.")

But - I do know that "rhinorrhea" is the term for a runny nose (and not the substance emitting therefrom.)

aadams73 · Nov 1, 2006

Nose-pickin's

San Antonio drivers seem to be oblivious to the fact that other drivers can *see* them picking their noses.

What's the scientific term for a booger?

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