The defination of the word sputum according to Dictionary.com is as follow.. “Matter coughed up and usually ejected from the mouth, including saliva, foreign material, and substances such as mucus or phlegm, from the respiratory tract. ” So basically it’s the yellow stuff you hack up after you get over a cold, and well Katie Couric admitted to slapping a staff member for using the word “sputum” in June, an article in New York magazine reports. Stressed by low ratings, Couric began slapping news editor Jerry Cipriano “over and over and over again” on the arm when he used the word in a broadcast, according to the article. “I sort of slapped him around,” Couric said. “I got mad at him and said, ‘You can’t do this to me. You have to tell me when you’re going to use a word like that.’ I was aggravated, there’s no question about that.’ It became kind of a joke,” Couric said.
Well I’ll know better then to say sputum around Katie Couric, I don’t wanna get bitch slapped!