Sunday, June 5, 2011

Language corner

Because of reasons, I have perforce made the acquaintance in the last few weeks of a couple of bits of medical terminology with which I was hitherto unfamiliar. Those who, like me, have always regarded medical language as technical, dry and incomprehensible may be as delighted as I am by these two dramatically emotive terms. Trauma to any bit of your body by way of injury or infection is referred to as an insult. And the word for abnormal liver function tests is deranged.

6 comments:

Elephant's Child said...

Love them both. And in my far too recent dealings with hospitals I have decided that the collective term for surgeons is an arrogance despite one of them introducing himself as 'only a humble surgeon'. Hope it goes well for you and you escape their clutches quickly.

Helen said...

Another blogger was recently marsupialised.

GS said...

My favourite is euthyroid.

Penthe said...

Insult is the perfect word. Ill-health always leaves me feeling outraged in the same way as when someone has spoken rudely to me. Good luck with the reasons.

Rhiannon said...

I too have a deranged liver, also due to gall bladder thingies. Deranged! Wildly-rolling eyes! If my liver had eyes.

hmm, WV is faillitt, which I feel accurately describes how did in my 'liver tests'.

Lovely blog,by the way, I have just started reading it and am enjoying it a lot.

Anonymous said...

Prefatory to anything else Mr. Bloom undertook, let me wish you a quick and easy procedure, and a very speedy uncomplicated recovery. Somehow I have no doubt you'll come through it with an utter minimum of inconvenience. Good luck!

But you didn't know about that usage of "insult"? I'm a tad surprised... but then again I reckon my lost years as a medical tech/historian/transcriber give me a boost on that'un. English is great for workmens jargon and terms of art. One of my favorites in medical argot is the set of actions/treatments/procedures which are "indicated," as against those which are "contra-indicated."
I suppose my whole beef with leftism boils down to the perception that it is all quite obviously contra-indicated.

But back to fun with language. It's funny that this post and the one on Dante follow so closely: one thing I can tell you from dear experience (a la "Proverbs for Paranoids" turf) is this: if you're going through a hypochondriac phase, then DON'T read a medical dictionary; and if you're having an existential dark night of the soul, well that's the exact wrong time to read the Inferno.

Heh.

signed, The artist formerly known as japerz