Last Saturday (23 January) I went to Sam Wanamaker’s Globe Theatre in Southwark (picture) for a meeting of the Oxford–Globe Forum for Medicine and Drama in Practice, as part of the commemorations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 1616, expertly organised by Shakespearean scholar Professor Laurie Maguire and her colleagues. I gave a […]
Category: Jeff Aronson’s Words
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Fifty up
This is the fiftieth blog in my “When I Use a Word” series. You’ve been counting, of course. To appreciate fully the range of words that imply “five” and “fifth”, “fifteen” and “fifty” requires an understanding of the phonetic phenomenon of assimilation, which is the modification of a sound in a word, phrase, or sentence, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Striking tactics
Jeremy Cunctator’s Fabian tactics in his dealings with the British Medical Association over the junior hospital doctors’ contract have precipitated the first doctors’ strike for 40 years. After declining to negotiate, he belatedly agreed to do so, mediated by Acas. The negotiations failed. Did he intend them to? What do you think? Then on Monday […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Quacks, mountebanks, and charlatans
The common pejorative names for peddlers of ineffective medicines relate to advertising. A quack, wrote Ambrose Bierce in The Devil’s Dictionary, is “a murderer without a license”. The origin of “quack”, originally “quacksalver”, is unclear. One explanation is that they “quacked” or boasted about their salves. This has a feeling of folk etymology about it, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Medical anniversaries in 2016
A happy New Year to both my readers. And what a cornucopia of anniversaries we can celebrate this year. Take your pick. The topics are diverse (see also the pictures below): anatomy (Mondino de Luzzi); physiology (Realdo Colombo, William Harvey, and Caleb Parry); pharmacology (glossopetrae, penicillin, and post-coital contraception); genetics (Fortunio Liceti, Gregor Mendel, and […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Magazines
Magazines have a long and distinguished history. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a magazine as “a periodical publication containing articles by various writers; esp. one with stories, articles on general subjects, etc., and illustrated with pictures, or a similar publication prepared for a special interest readership.” A periodical is “a magazine or journal issued at […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Fabian tactics
My pursuit of words that twist are repeatedly balked by a desire to comment on the way in which Jeremy Hunt continues to twist and turn over the junior hospital doctors’ contract. Did he really have a change of heart when, after first declining to do so, he belatedly agreed to negotiate, mediated by Acas, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Keep on twisting
I don’t know why I let Jeremy Hunt, the BMA, and Acas get in the way last week, when I was progressing with my exploration of different types of twisting. As I was saying, several Indo-European roots connoted twisting and turning. I began with UER and then made a start on PLEK, but there’s more […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Conciliatory
The junior doctors (pictured) vote to strike. The BMA seeks to resolve the dispute with Jeremy Hunt through the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service Acas. Not before time. He rejects the suggestion. Brinkmanship, perhaps, or fear of something (losing votes?), or perhaps hoping to destroy the system as an excuse to privatize the NHS? Then […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Terrorism
The Latin word “terror,” from the hypothetical Indo-European root TER, implying trembling, meant “the fact or quality of inspiring terror” (Oxford Latin Dictionary) and a person or thing that causes terror. Territare meant to constrain by fear, to try to scare, or, as we would now say, to terrorize. From “terror” we get such words […]