What does botty mean?
"Botty" is an informal British English noun meaning the buttocks. Belonging firmly to the nursery register, it is the kind of word a parent might use when talking to a small child — announcing nappy changes, warning about cold seats, or gently scolding. Its tone is affectionate and faintly comic rather than vulgar, placing it alongside other cosy euphemisms such as "bottom", "tummy", and "bum". Outside Britain it is little used; American speakers reach instead for "bottom", "behind", or "tooshie". The word derives from "bot", an older British slang term for the backside, softened with the diminutive suffix "-y" into something suitable for bedtime stories. While you are unlikely to meet "botty" in serious prose, it remains a living part of everyday domestic speech and children's literature, where its gentle silliness does exactly the work a formal anatomical term never could.
nounA childish or informal British word for a person's bottom or buttocks.
- The buttocks (childish, chiefly British)
"The toddler giggled as she plopped down on her botty."
"Mind your botty on that cold park bench."
"He slipped on the ice and landed right on his botty."
Rarely needed but formed regularly; typically used playfully about babies or pets.
"Two squirming toddlers, two bare botties to dry after the bath."
Brits gave the humble bottom not just one cute nickname but a whole family of them — and "botty" is the baby-talk favourite.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of botty
"Botty" is formed from "bot", a now-dated piece of British slang for the buttocks, plus the diminutive suffix "-y" that turns blunt words into affectionate child-speak. The compound arose within colloquial British English, likely in the twentieth century, as part of the same nursery vocabulary that produced "tummy" and "beddy-byes". Its root, "bot", itself appears to have developed as a clipped, jocular form within native slang rather than being borrowed from another language.
How botty is actually used
Informal, affectionate, and used mainly with or about children; it would be out of place in formal writing. It carries a playful, mildly comic connotation rather than any rude force.
Easily confused with botty
"Botty" means the buttocks, while "body" refers to the entire physical structure of a person or animal; the two differ by one letter and in meaning entirely.