One of the anchors at work is about six/seven months pregnant. While talking with the weather woman, they were discussing another friend of their’s who recently developed what’s known as “Pups”. Basically, it’s an illness where a pregnant woman has an allergic reaction to her own placenta, and breaks out in sores. They were discussing how degrading they felt it was that such a horrible disease would have such a cute name, and it got me thinking.
If you’re going to be subject to a horrible illness, wouldn’t you want it called something nice? I mean, the symptoms of “Pups” sounds downright terrible, but when someone says “I’ve got pups,” it still sounds like it’s something cute and cuddley, and therefore, not so bad. If it was named something like “Skin errupty Syndrome”, people would be a hell of a lot more freaked out by it.
So, what would you prefer? A cute, cuddley name for a horrible disease you’ve contracted, or a more “true to form” scarry name?
Scary names, please. It’s a lot easier to elicit sympathy if you don’t have to tell people you can’t make it to school/work/their wedding because you’ve got a nasty bout of teddybearitis.
My cancer is called Carcinoid, which liberally translated means ‘cancer-like’.
Honey, they ain’ no ‘like’ to it. This here is cancer. It’ll kill ya, fer sure. BUT, there are doctors who do not keep up with the latest, read same old info, and tell people all the time that it’s not REAL cancer, it’s the best kind to have, it’s the ‘looking good’ cancer, yadda yadda. Bull farkin’ sheeite. It is cancer, in is incurable, and it is literally a pain in the ass, and many other places.
Failing a better medical accuracy, i’d appreciate a good descriptive name. Something like 'Redfaced, Pottyproblemhaving, Irritable, BloatedLiver, Barfing Cancer".
My favorite disease name is Beri Beri. I plan on using it as a call-off excuse one day. “Sorry, Joe. I can’t come in today. I’ve come down with a bad case of Beri Beri.”
I think it should be clarified that the name isn’t “Pups,” it’s PUPs, as in Pruritic Urticarial Papules. So they did give it a reasonably scary name, it just so happens that the reasonably scary name breaks down to a cute acronym.
DDperson, I hope this doesn’t sound fatuous, but I appreciate your attitude and I wish you the best.
Diseases or disorders I have (er, sorry if this sounds pathetic):
OCD (obsessive-complusive disorder): This is a good name. Nice snappy but not cute acronym.
Irritiable Bowel Syndrome: Very common problem, stupid name. Irritable? Hey, I’m freaking irritable… lets think of a better term for my insides.
Incompetent cervix (caused a miscarriage): This name sucks. I picture some flustered secretary throwing papers up in the air. A friend of mine suggested “relaxed” cervix but I don’t like that either.
Personally, I prefer diseases with more conversational names like “Lou Gehrig’s Disease” , “Legionnaire’s Disease”, “The Hong Kong Flu”, or even “Yellow Fever”. Something not too complicated to pronounce but still iconic enough when you say them that they ring home to other people.
Cute-sounding names like “shingles” just don’t sell the suffering they inflict, even the various kinds of animal “pox” just sound like instant Jay Leno joke material. Chicken-, cow-, small-, monkey-, whatever-pox just doesn’t sound scary enough unless you can see or remember what something like smallpox can do to the unprotected. Same with something like African Sleeping Sickness -it just sounds like a strain of narcolepsy rather than the killer it can be.
Non-silly sounding acronym diseases like HIV/AIDS or SARS, or diseases with foreign sounding names like ebola, tend to inspire a kind of vague but intense paranoia.
So I guess any kind of “_______” Syndrome, Disease, Disorder sounds better to me. Like if you get a dose of the clap it could be “Charlie Sheen Syndrome”. My insomnia could be “Dave Attell Disorder”.
I’ve thought this through way too much for my own good…
There are too many acronyms in modern life. I don’t like Acronym Disease Names – HIV, AIDS, SARS, SIDS. Enough! Who the hell can remember what they mean?
Gimme a name like “Syphilis” – names outta Greek Mythology (It’s the name of a shepherd).
Tell the truth – provided you had to have the disease, wouldn’t you rather have a mild case of Laelaps than having a case of qCMD-5?
And you’ve really got to be careful when you name the disease after a person. Lou Gehrig is one thing, but Asperger’s Syndrome–that just makes people giggle. If I’ve got it, I want it to sound serious and important and command the respect it deserves. Incompetent cervix?! That makes it sound like you should fire it and hire one with better qualifications. How about maladroit cervix–at least it sounds more intellectual?
I’d make an exception for a good definite-article disease, though…like “The Flu”, “The Clap”, “The Vapours”, or “The Consumption” (a personal favorite…).
As I understand it – and after a brief check in the OED – the name actually comes from a sixteenth-century Italian poem called Syphilis, sive Morbus Gallicus (Syphilis, or the French Disease), in which the name is that of both the disease and the central character (who is, of course, afflicted by it).
OTOH, OED isn’t sure where the name itself comes from, but says “It has been suggested that it is a corrupt mediæval form of Sipylus, the name of a son of Niobe (so called after a mountain) in Ovid Metamorphoses VI. 146 ff.”
I have chronic Lyme disease…To this day I think of the citrus fruit. Some people (not knowing that the disease is named after Lyme, Conneticut) have actually asked…can you get it from limes???:eek:
