Yet More Medical Terms!

[Linda]

Look into my eyes ... you are swaying like a palm tree in a tropical breeze ... Linda is the kindest, sweetest, most precious little hag you know .... your vote counts, don't waste it! 

[biggerbirdbrain]

We need more input ... and remember, there are 3 more hags voting!! It'll be a hard slog, Linda!

[technomc]

I had always credited you threeb with infinately more intelligence than that.....with far more discerning taste....not in the slightest bit fickle....and completely incorruptable....
So imagine how i am going to feel....     :'(        

[biggerbirdbrain]

So I had you fooled too, then?? 

[Linda]

I'm confident that my goodness will not have gone unnoticed!  

[biggerbirdbrain]

Goodness at WHAT? Oh, yes, I forgot -- it nearly slipped my mind!

Didn't you help an old lady across the street when you were seven or so?? And once, I think I remember, you removed a thorn from a stray mouse's tiny paw?

Yes, the kharma from those kindnesses will surely override all the other evil deeds since then, eh??

[Linda]

No ... that wasn't me ... you mistake me for some kind of sap! 

[biggerbirdbrain]

Well, THAT helped to sway the vote! See, I KNEW you couldn't keep up appearances!

THE TRUTH WILL OUT!!

[Linda]

Bugger! .... hoisted by my own petard! 

[biggerbirdbrain]

pe·tard  (p-tärd)
n.
1. A small bell-shaped bomb used to breach a gate or wall.
2. A loud firecracker.
[French pétard, from Old French, from peter, to break wind, from pet, a breaking of wind, from Latin pditum, from neuter past participle of pdere, to break wind; see pezd- in Indo-European roots.]
Word History: The French used pétard, "a loud discharge of intestinal gas," for a kind of infernal engine for blasting through the gates of a city. "To be hoist by one's own petard," a now proverbial phrase apparently originating with Shakespeare's Hamlet (around 1604) not long after the word entered English (around 1598), means "to blow oneself up with one's own bomb, be undone by one's own devices." The French noun pet, "fart," developed regularly from the Latin noun pditum, from the Indo-European root *pezd-, "fart."

Hoist by one's own mammoth fart??? I LIKE IT!!!!! 

[Binkie]

Only in this forum could the subject go from a serious medical term to loud farting in the space of two pages!
It's always the same.....I leave the arena for a short while, and in my absence the whole tone of the discussion goes down the gurgler. I despair, I really do.

[biggerbirdbrain]

GURGLEGURGLEGURGLE -- circling the drain yet again!!! 

[anonsi]

Back to the original topic....

Binks and Dave, that's interesting about calor, dolor, et. al.  Those are Spanish words with meanings similar to those given in Binkie's reply to Dave's original post.  So it surprises me that you found them in the medical dictionary.  It's words like these that make it difficult for me to figure out which words in Spanish are allowed, and which aren't!

[biggerbirdbrain]

Yes, Anonsi, they are Spanish words ... but I do believe they're derived from the Latin as well, which is the root for Romance languages such as Spanish and French. But, then, I could be wrong. Great point, though!

[Alan W]

I think corda definitely fails to make the grade. Calor is a bit more borderline, but it still seems to be defined only in medical dictionaries, Latin dictionaries, Spanish dictionaries, etc. Rubor seems to be in the same category, and is also not allowed in Chi. The other two related terms, tumor and dolor are alternate spellings of tumour and dolour, and are in our list.

It's true, Dave, that calor has "been around for quite a while" - 1st century, as Binkie informs us. I think that might be part of the problem. Perhaps medicos don't actually use the word these days, since bamboozling the punters with scraps of Latin has gone out of vogue, and heat can be used to convey the same meaning.