I had caught fever and and my nose was running. I want to know that what to call the stuff that comes out of a running nose, in English. In Hindi, we say "Naak".
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It's mucus:
the slimy protective secretion of the mucous membranes, consisting mainly of mucin
You have mucous membranes in places besides your nose, though, so if you need to be specific you can refer to it as nasal mucus. You can also refer to it as nasal discharge, meaning a substance coming out of your nose.
There are a number of informal terms for mucus, most of which sound quite childish. Nonetheless, I'll list them:
- Snot (uncountable). This is a term for nasal mucus in its normal liquid form.
- A booger (countable, US usage). This is an American term for a piece of dried nasal mucus.
- A bogey (countable, UK usage). This is the UK counterpart of booger.
- A nose goblin (countable). This means the same thing as booger (although FumbleFingers says it's less common; see the comments for discussion, if you'd like).
Of these, I think snot is the most acceptable when used by an adult, but they're all rather informal. If you're talking to a doctor, nasal mucus or nasal discharge would be fine.
If you're just describing liquid coming out of your nose, but you don't want to use medical-sounding terms like nasal discharge, then you can say your nose is running or that you have a runny nose.
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2There are thousands and thousands of references in Google Books to boogers (UK bogies/bogeys), but less than a couple of dozen relevant instances of the collocation nose goblin. It's a colourful turn of phrase, familiar to a few and easily understood even on first hearing, but I wouldn't say it's exactly "the same as booger" (in the UK, it's virtually unknown). – FumbleFingers Jan 26 '14 at 15:01
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@Fumble - I"m in the U.S., and this is the first I've heard of it, too. I'm not surprised, though; perhaps it's derived from snow goblins. – J.R. Jan 26 '14 at 17:19
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@J.R.: The exact same thought occurred to me! Mind you, I'd never heard of "snow goblins" until KitFox asked about them on ELU a few weeks back Not surprisingly, I suppose - a brief check of all eleven pre-2000 written instances of snow goblins failed to turn up a single one with KitFox's meaning. I think we can safely say nose and snow goblins are highly-localised regionalisms, not particularly relevant to those who just want to learn "standard, commonly-used" English. – FumbleFingers Jan 26 '14 at 17:40
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@Fumble - I agree with everything you say, except for the "not particularly relevant" part. Most English learners that I've met in person have been very glad when they've had a chance to learn a few regionalisms and colloquial slang, not wanting to confine their speech to standard "classroom" expressions. It won't hurt an English learner to put a fun expression like nose goblin into their pocket, ready to be pulled out like a hankie when the need arises. – J.R. Jan 26 '14 at 23:27
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@J.R.: I certainly agree many/most learners are likely to want to know about [widespread] colloquial slang usages. And maybe some will also want to know [rare] regionalisms. My point (made clearly in my first comment, I feel) is that as it stands this answer could be seen as misleading, because it equates booger (common as muck in the US, if not the UK) with nose goblin (rare as hen's teeth on either side of the pond). If we're going to have a bit of "local colour" (which I don't really object to, even if it's somewhat superfluous), it should at least be *clearly identified as such.* – FumbleFingers Jan 26 '14 at 23:40
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(That specific point is the only reason I upvoted your answer, but not this one.) – FumbleFingers Jan 26 '14 at 23:41
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@Fumble - One point to consider, though: sometimes it's hard to clearly identify something as "rare" when you've used it all your life. What's unusual or novel for me and you might be ordinary, run-of-the-mill, everyday speech for KitFox or snailplane. When that happens, it's worth adding a comment saying, "This one is new to me," but it still can be a good answer (which is why I upvoted this answer). I learned something new today, and, to me, that makes this – as the messsage reads when we hover over the upvote button – a "useful" answer. :^) – J.R. Jan 26 '14 at 23:44
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@J.R.: Absolutely. I'm sure all native speakers have a huge stock of expressions which unbeknown to them are highly localised usages (both geographically & figuratively). But even though I didn't provide Google Books links to back up my initial comment, I assure you I really did check the situation out. You could argue that with all this protracted discussion, it's a bit superfluous to ask for a disclaimer in the actual answer text. And snailboat certainly doesn't "need" my upvote, obviously. But I'm sticking to my guns and withholding it "unless and until". Whatever - 'nuff said! – FumbleFingers Jan 27 '14 at 00:01
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The word mucus is quite formal and usually just in medical contexts. In everyday speech, most people just use the word snot, which is far more common. – Tristan Jan 27 '14 at 14:37
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The word booger is not used in the UK. This link http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/bogey_1?q=bogey mentions that it is part of American English in particular. Nose goblin is pretty much unheard of in the UK. – Tristan Jan 27 '14 at 14:43
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1Because nose goblins are so important to me, and more than that, because it's a contentious matter of international import, I have done my best to update my answer taking your comments into account. Thank you, all! – Jan 27 '14 at 14:46
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In the UK, we often use "snot" to refer to solid mucus, in addition to the liquid mucus described in the answer. – Chris Down Jan 28 '14 at 11:50
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The medical term is mucus, but a common informal word is snot:
Doctor to patient: Keep taking this medication until the mucus clears out of your sinuses.
Parent to parent: You should have seen my baby last week; she had snot running all down her face.
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Because it looks like melted and re-congealed candle wax, people often use variants of "candles hanging from his nose". But your two are the main ones, and of course it's important to know which "register" each is appropriate to. – FumbleFingers Jan 26 '14 at 14:49
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My Welsh grandparents always referred to a runny nose as "candles."
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That's odd. Because candles are made of wax. Although unrelated, wax isn't mucus, as wax can be found in the ears and not form the nose. – Varun Nair Mar 02 '16 at 11:37
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It's metaphoric, the runniness from the nose can look like candle wax running down the side of a candle. It's a great analogy – Peter Mar 02 '16 at 12:08