And, in English (at least in university-student shorthand) writing “w/” to mean “with.”
Agreed. I first encountered the “c” and “s” with lines over them in college. And I use them daily at work, writing orders and progress notes on patients.
I’m not sure it’s the same thing. The line over a final letter wasn’t just used with [c], but with any word ending in a final [m] (or even [n]). I don’t know but I suspect it’s to reduce minim confusion. In italic handwriting, the same up-and-down squiggle is used to make the letters * (one minim) (two minims), [n] (two minims) and [m] (three minims). So “minimum” could be rendered |||||||||||||||. Wikipedia’s explanation is better (even if the “love / luve” example is nonsense): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minim_%28palaeography%29
For record, the proper spelling of that would be “come” – although I wonder how it degraded to such.
I’ve wondered this, too. Does anyone know the etymology?
To come to climax?
Sorry, I wasn’t specific enough: I’m curious how/why the spelling has altered from “come” to “cum.” I find the latter word irksome, for no reason I can fathom. It just bugs me.
The answer, as already given in cross purpose postings, is that the nurse didn’t know what she was talking about. The line is what makes the “c” into cum, meaning “with”.
Medical notes contain a fascinating number of old Latin terms and abbreviations, which survive, so far as I can tell, simply because of inertia combined with a certain clubbishness. The abbreviations for cum and sine, used for “with” and “without” instead of the perfectly serviceable w/ and w/o are a classic example. They are rarely used outside the medical field any more. Even the lawyers gave them up. 
Similarly, things like “oculus dexter”, or OD, for “right eye” seem kind of silly any more. Still, it was fun when I did workers’ compensation reading medical records, and having to figure out some of the more obscure terms and shorthand. :eek:
I used to be in medical transcription, and I cannot agree more wholeheartedly. I think it’s blatant obfuscation, an old boys’ network designed to exclude patients from their own care.
Except that progress notes and other charting in which terms like the “c” and “s” referred to in the OP appear, are intended as communications between health professionals and are not directed towards the patient. Handouts and instructions for patients are drafted to be in straightforward English, Spanish etc.
Some of the Latin phraseology may remain out of tradition, but lots of expressions and abbreviations are convenient and save time (it’s faster to write out “s” with the line above it than “without”. Similarly, OD is faster to write than “right eye”).
Traditional phraseology needs to be changed not because it aggravates new medical transcriptionists and attorneys (there’s heartbreak city for you), but in instances where it has an impact on patient care. For instance, it is now forbidden at my hospital to chart with certain abbreviations like “MS” (do you mean morphine sulfate or magnesium sulfate?) or use the < or > symbols (too easy to confuse).
What I wanna complain about is all this here Internet jargon, like OP and LOL and suchlike. It’s a blatant attempt at hive-mind in-groupism. :mad:
OD is always once daily to me, never oculus dexter!
Some abbreviations do make sense.
BD, TDS, TID, QDS, QID, PR, PV, PO, SC, IM and IV are much, much easier, quicker and simpler to write than:
Twice daily
Three times a day
Four times a day
Rectally
Vaginally
Orally
Subcutaneously
Intramuscularly
Intravenously
Some medical speak sounds like waffle but is just very specific language.
You have “tummy pain”, I think you have “left hypochondrial discomfort”, which is different to “left epigastric tenderness”, which is different to “left iliac fossa pain with guarding”.
I know some abbreviations that are designed to give you wiggle room (does that NAD stand for No Abnormality Detected, or Not Actually Done?)
Of course, some abbreviations are used specifically so that patients don’t know what you have written. We are not supposed to use them.
Examples would be:
FLKSAM- funny looking kid, same as mum
FLKFLF- funny looking kid, funny looking family
PTIWBY- patient thinks I was born yesterday
GLM- good looking mum
AFTM- anxious first time mum
you get the idea…
It hasn’t. cum is latin for with.
I think he’s referring to the sexual meaning, which is from the English verb, and not the Latin preposition.
This’ll Do is referring to the use of “cum” to mean “orgasmed” and, by extension, “semen.” The word “come” makes sense–you’ve come to the point of climax–but it’s been corrupted into “cum,” which bother’s This’ll Do. Personally, I like the separation because it avoids any potentially awkward ambiguity in writing, while still making spoken puns possible, where meaning is easier to convey.
Edit: Yeah, what he said.
That’s really interesting. Thanks for the link, too. I like minims because they make calligraphy easier if you’re writing a Gothic script.
Except that, as I pointed out in my post (did you read it?) that you can write like most people do “w/” for with, which is certainly as easy, if not easier, and it’s a real stretch to assert that w/o is slower than the current abbreviation for “sine.” :dubious:
(e.g. slumber party-cum-bloodbath)
This ranks right up there with the Snacks Cum Coffee Shop that I saw in India. I decided that I could go for some snacks and coffee, but I wouldn’t fully avail myself of their selection.
- The use of a line above the initial letter to indicate an abbreviation was commonplace in Latin and survives in a number of situations, for example the q with macron or tilde to mean “que” or “qui” (which/who(m)) in French.
The tilde started life as a replacement for a subsequent “n” and can be seen as such in various inscriptions, such as tãto mõta for tanto monta (“it rises as much,” part of the motto of the Catholic Monarchs); the Spanish ñ in fact started life as a double N, annus -> anno -> año, and Portuguese ã and õ started similarly (compare Spanish versión to Portuguese versão.)
- The ease of confusing abbreviations is a constant thorn to medical professionals and causes many patient errors. A book I have, provocatively entitled Medical Abbreviations: 26,000 Conveniences at the Expense of Communication and Safety, details the most dangerous abbreviations (with a view not only to homonymy but also to confusion due to sloppy handwriting, such as “u” for unit turning into a zero and causing a tenfold overdose). I think my favourites were a case in which the abbreviation “TAB” for “triple antibiotic” resulted in a patient’s wounds being irrigated with diet soda, and another in which the abbreviation “® ear” was misread, causing an irrigation to be given not in the right ear, but the rear!
Dudes, Sumer is icumin in
I have seen it written as Sumer ys y-cumin yn in manuscrip pictures.
Short jump from icumin to cum.
Doest really sound like non word geeks bothered thinking to me. I have also heard someone with a seriously country brit accent that pronounced come as ‘kuum’ and strikingly close to what my english prof covering Chaucer claimed was the correct pronunciation.
Check out the link to the you tube flick of a group performing it.
duh 