Impotance became ED (erectile disfunction) and why? Is it to hide it? So you can say…“Whew! All I have is ED!”?
Working hard here…
Impotance implies that one’s seed has no potancy (sterility). That’s much different than just not being able to get it up (the inability to get a erection or…an erectile disfunction.)
ZOTTI IS IMPOTENT?!?!?
Yer pal,
Satan
DAMN YOU SATAN!
er…that sounds so weird…
Anyway, Hope you’re happy…my screens all covered in Pepsi now…
Eschew Obfuscation
Pure public relations. The term only gained wide currency in the past 5 years or so. ED is a euphemism for impotence, which, despite Ursa’s etymological explanation, always meant the inability to have an erection.
I’d guess doctors first began using the term as a way to describe the condition without frightening their patients (impotence used to be a stigma – you weren’t a “real man”). The explanation “it’s more precise” is a common rationalization for using a euphemism.
“East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx
Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. www.sff.net/people/rothman
Impotence became ‘erectile dysfunction’ right around the same time being shy became ‘social anxiety disorder’.
In the ongoing quest to invent new diseases that the same old common drugs like Prozac can treat, I suspect you start seeing a lot more of these.
You just know that PMS is going to become ‘chronic monthly feminine hormonal imbalance disorder’ and pretty soon, Paxil and Prozac will have yet another indication to boost market share.
Yeah, right about now you probably think I have my head up my ass about this. Well! How politically incorrect of you! You should know I suffer rectal-cranial inversion syndrome…a disease not to be taken lightly!
I think “Impotence” became “Erectile Dysfunction” about the time Bob Dole came down (pun intended) with it.
Never let them teach you to think, Lance. It’s the curse of the world.