# Diseases vs. Syndromes: Using an apostrophe vs. Turning away from an apostrophe **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 12, 2025, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302 "2025-05-12T20:18:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/21 "2025-05-15T18:06:11Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > And the ban on apostrophes in U.S. place names has been on the books for more than a century: Yes, one of the first things the US Board on Geographic Names decreed was to get rid of diacritics, which they considered the apostrophe to be. That was in 1890 or thereabouts. However, it wasn’t completely enforced or maybe it was just meant for possessive apostrophes. At any rate, Coeur d’Alene ID never lost its apostrophe, although it did lose a circumflex over the second E. And there have been a few names that have reverted. Two city names that have are D’Lo MS and Lee’s Summit MO. There may be others. Several natural features have also had their possessive apostrophes restored: Martha’s Vineyard, Ike’s Point NJ, John E’s Pond RI, Carlos Elmer’s Joshua View AZ, and Clark’s Mountain OR (named for William Clark, the famous explorer). ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/22 "2025-05-15T18:46:31Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I think its another symptom of the dumbing down of modern society. It is, but speaking as a pedant who strenuously objects to the stupidity of modern colloquialisms (“I literally could care less” is a fine exemplar) I don’t really have a big problem with losing apostrophes in any proper names. It’s mildly annoying, but where is it written that proper names have to follow prescribed orthography? A name can legitimately be spelled any way the name’s owner – or the originator of a term – wants to spell it. For example, Hudson Bay in Canada is named after the British explorer Henry Hudson. Should it have been “Hudson’s Bay” as many incorrectly refer to it? Who cares! But then we have (or had, until recently) the venerable 350-year-old “Hudson’s Bay Company”, apparently so named because someone had misconstrued the correct name of the famous bay. I thought it was a quaint discrepancy, but it’s a proper name, and never bothered me. So if Martha’s Vineyard, for example, were to become “Marthas Vineyard” at some future date, I wouldn’t get too excited about it. But when I see the “grocer’s apostrophe”, like “apple’s and orange’s on sale today” I’d happily set fire to the place! 😉 > [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > My guess: “syndrome” starts with an S, so over time, “[Name]’s Syndrome” would just end up elided to “[Name] Syndrome” anyway. That sounds fairly plausible. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/23 "2025-05-15T22:30:31Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > where is it written that proper names have to follow prescribed orthography? Is it written somewhere that they at least have to be consistent? The World Health Organization uses the term [Hansen Disease](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/leprosy). The center for Disease Control calls it [Hansen’s Disease](https://www.cdc.gov/leprosy/about/index.html). So does Australia’s [Department of Health and Aged Care](https://www.health.gov.au/diseases/leprosy). The NCCID in Canada [uses the apostrophe](https://nccid.ca/debrief/leprosy/). Britain’s NHS doesn’t even list the disease in its database, but the UK Health Security Agency [just calls it leprosy](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/leprosy-memorandum/memorandum-on-leprosy-2023)! ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/24 "2025-05-15T22:48:30Z")
There’s also been a trend toward replacing the word “Disease” in “[Name]’s Disease” with a more descriptive word. (See “Hodgkin’s lymphoma” or “Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.”) ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/25 "2025-05-16T07:25:55Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > There’s also been a trend toward replacing the word “Disease” in “[Name]’s Disease” with a more descriptive word. (See “Hodgkin’s lymphoma” or “Hashimoto’s thyroiditis”) A rare useful change in terminology! The majority of names used in medicine seem purposely designed to obfuscate. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/26 "2025-05-17T11:32:27Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > (“I literally could care less” is a fine exemple) Notwithstanding your spelling error, about which I could not care less, the US expression has never made sense. “I could care less” implies that you do actually care. “I couldn’t care less” implies that you do not care at all, less than nothing. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/27 "2025-05-17T13:26:14Z")
Huh. I’ve typically heard it said as “I couldn’t care less.” And in that case adding “literally” as an intensifier actual makes literal sense as well. If dropping the contracted “not” has become more the common usage, well that makes sense to me. At some point a phrase functions as a single unit of understood meaning, its origin no longer of usage concern. So it is with these eponymous syndromes I think. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/28 "2025-05-17T13:34:11Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Another example I though of is Lou Gehrig’s disease. This isn’t named after the discoverer, but a prominent patient, so it is, in fact, the disease he had, or possessed. > > It does have another name, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, aka ALS. Since the name is hard to get your tongue around, and ALS could stand for other things, “Lou Gehrig’s disease” comes in handy-- and you still hear it even when most people know nothing else about Lou Gehrig. Official health agencies frown on naming diseases after a patient who had it, as that’s dehumanizing for the patient. Any official disease name based on a person’s name will be the name of the researcher who first or most prominently studied it. And I think that nowadays, ALS is probably better known as what Stephen Hawking had, than Lou Gehrig. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/29 "2025-05-17T15:22:25Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > If dropping the contracted “not” has become more the common usage, well that makes sense to me. At some point a phrase functions as a single unit of understood meaning, its origin no longer of usage concern. Yeah, I know some people have given up and decided (in the case of both “could care less” and “literally”) that what it means isn’t what it actually means. But Al, bless him, is still fighting the good fight. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/8Gv0H-vPoDc/maxresdefault.jpg ""Weird Al" Yankovic - Word Crimes (Official 4K Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc&t=65) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/30 "2025-05-17T16:25:44Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Yeah, I know some people have given up and decided (in the case of both “could care less” and “literally”) that what it means isn’t what it actually means. I could give a rat’s ass. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/31 "2025-05-17T16:26:29Z")
Thanks, I always wanted a rat’s ass. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/32 "2025-05-17T16:57:23Z")
But what would you do with it, once you got one? I generally send the rats asses with which I am presented (one of my dogs excels in rodent capture) to the dump, via my fine city’s refuse collection service. The rest of the body goes with them. (I think this thread is so derailed, I think it might need to be moved… and I will try… try… try really hard not to comment while it is in FQ.) ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/33 "2025-05-17T17:50:52Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > (“I literally could care less” is a fine exemple) > > Notwithstanding your spelling error, about which I could not care less, the US expression has never made sense. That’s a misquote, and against the rules of this board. The word I used was “exemplar” If that was supposed to be joke, it didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/34 "2025-05-17T18:13:09Z")
**Moderator Note** > [@scudsucker](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > (“I literally could care less” is a fine exemple) > > Notwithstanding your spelling error, about which I could not care less Modifying a quote box is forbidden on the SDMB, even if you are correcting a typo or a spelling mistake. Normal editorial rules apply, so feel free to use [sic] to indicate that the original quote has an error (or you believe it has an error), such as: > [@wolfpup](#): > > (“I literally could care less” is a fine exemplar)[sic] No warning issued. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/35 "2025-05-17T18:20:17Z")
I will add that “exemplar” is **[a perfectly acceptable word](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exemplar)** and was intentional. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/36 "2025-05-17T18:22:40Z")
Which is why I added this bit: > [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > (or you believe it has an error) If they erroneously add a [sic] because they think it’s an error, that’s no biggie. And I’m sure since this is the SDMB that someone will nitpick and correct the erroneous [sic]. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/37 "2025-05-17T18:45:26Z")
Eh. . . just pull the plug on this one. It’s been answered to the extent possible, and the literalist drivel that it’s descending is adding nothing new to _that_ discussion, and in honor of the Preakness today. . . that horse has been flogged enough. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/38 "2025-05-17T20:06:26Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Modifying a quote box is forbidden I’m not going to take this to ATMB, but this was an honest “highlight, press ‘quote’” as is usual to get a quote snippet. If the post quoted was shortly later edited to change the content, spelling, even just punctuation, I will not get notified. And besides, I can’t edit my post now to correct it. And technically, even adding “[sic]” is editing a post. Anyway. Mod Note accepted and I will try not to do this again. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/39 "2025-05-17T21:00:51Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > I’m not going to take this to ATMB, but this was an honest “highlight, press ‘quote’” as is usual to get a quote snippet. Fair enough. The changes must have been made fairly quickly since Discourse doesn’t indicate an edit. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302/40 "2025-05-18T00:17:05Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > I’m not going to take this to ATMB, but this was an honest “highlight, press ‘quote’” as is usual to get a quote snippet. > > If the post quoted was shortly later edited to change the content, spelling, even just punctuation, I will not get notified. And besides, I can’t edit my post now to correct it. I have no recollection of going back and editing that post, but then, I have no recollection of a lot of things! 😉 I readily accept that I may have posted exactly what you quoted and then quickly edited it. It’s no big deal. And all very appropriate in a thread about nitpicky orthography! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diseases-vs-syndromes-using-an-apostrophe-vs-turning-away-from-an-apostrophe/1018302.md?page=1)