Been reading Straight Dope for years, but this is my first post here. I was reading Cecil’s column on orgasms ( http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_224.html ) where the term *status orgasmus * was used. That reminded me of the term status epilepticus. In both cases status seem to mean either prolonged or repeating. Since I no longer have my treasured micro-printed edition of the OED (2 HUGE volumes and a magnifying glass!) I was forced to turn to Dictionary.com. None of the definitions of status seemed to fit this usage. So I am wondering if anyone is familiar with the history of status in this sense?
I know this isn’t the most sexy question ever asked, but the question is now stuck in my head. Please help me get it out before I suffer status frustraticus.
b. Used (with the sense ‘state, condition’) in many mod.L. combinations with adj., as status arthriticus, epilepticus, lymphaticus, nervosus: see Dorland’s Illustr. Med. Dict. 1913. status asthmaticus, the condition of a patient during a prolonged severe asthmatic attack; also ellipt., = status epilepticus.
a1883 FAGGE Princ. & Pract. Med. (1886) I. 684 There is…a special modification of the disease in which the fits follow one another in rapid succession… This has by modern French physicians been called the état de mal épileptique, and in England some writers have made use of the equivalent expression, status epilepticus. 1898 Syd. Soc. Lex., Status (L.),…A stage in which the disease having reached its height, it remains for a time before convalescence begins. 1899 Allbutt’s Syst. Med. VI. 323 Epilepsy with ‘status’ [i.e. status epilepticus] or complications. 1909 Daily Mail 5 Aug. 5/6 The exact causation of the status lymphaticus was unknown. 1947 DORLAND & MILLER Med. Dict. (ed. 21) 1392/1 Status asthmaticus. 1962 J. H. BURN Drugs, Med. & Man xviii. 179 Sometimes the attacks (asthma) follow one another so steadily that the patient’s life is in danger. He is then said to be in ‘status asthmaticus’ and in the past patients have often died. 1971 Where Dec. 360/1 There was no sign of epilepsy until she was two and a half, when she went into status (a condition where the fits follow one another without pause).