Ever Wonder...

[Galaxian]

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Why the hell did the good ol' CEntimeter (I believe the word has a latin root, no?) suddenly become the more pretentious SAUNtimeter when I entered medical school? And is it just me, or are more and more people throwing around the word "gestalt" now? For example: "This guy's INR is through the roof despite all that FFP we gave him. What's your gestalt on this?" Some people...

 

[sacrament]

The "sauntimeter" thing drives me crazy. I refuse to conform to it.

 

[timerick]

Wonderful Frenchified pronunciation of the word. Do they also spell is "centimetre" the way the French do? (Can you say "pedantic"?)

 

[sophRI]

no kidding. it's weird. we get sauntimeter instead of centimeter, umbil-eye-cus instead of umbilicus (though I had never heard this word b/4 med school, so maybe that's the right way?), o - blike (oblique) instead of oh-bleek, and some other choice pronounciations that I have forgotten. and after hearing them all the time, you start to hear yourself saying "5 sauntimeters".... before you realize how stupid it sounds.
is this a pretentious surgeon thing or what? is there some word that might otherwise be confused with "centimeter"?

oh, and now that you mention it, there has been a disproportionate use of the word "gestalt". i feel like another year here and i will truly be unable to converse normally with the masses.

 

[png-girl]

yeah, what's with gestalt, my anatomy profs say it every lecture it seems.

 

[sophiejane]

How about "elegant"?

Everything is "elegant" now...mitochondria, the facial nerve, you name it....

the word just means "really complicated" to me now

 

[Drnunia]

Our teacher tell us to learn thing "in toto" and tells us that it would "behoove" to to so. And in our class it is the "duodeeum". When they said medicine was a whole new language, they really ment it.

 

[Carbon]

Originally posted by Drnunia
Our teacher tell us to learn thing "in toto" and tells us that it would "behoove" to to so. And in our class it is the "duodeeum". When they said medicine was a whole new language, they really ment it.

I'll take doo-oh-DEE-num over doo-WAH-deh-num any day.

One of our lecturers says "skel-EE-tal" muscle. Now that's annoying.

 

[DOtobe]

Originally posted by Carbon
One of our lecturers says "skel-EE-tal" muscle. Now that's annoying.

We had a biochem professor who said "skel-EE-tal" but it was because of his cute British accent. And he would also say "vitamin" with a short "i" sound instead of a long "i" sound.

And the word "sauntimeter" annoys the hell out of me I will never say the word sauntimeter.

 

[Pre-Dent-David]

Some people deserve death.... some deserve worse. 😡

 

[ItsGavinC]

Anybody favored with "newron" on a daily basis instead of neuron?

 

[drPheta]

I prefer neuron.

Anyone get vuitamins rather than vEYEtamin?

Never heard the sauntimeter, though.

 

[supersunny]

Originally posted by drPheta
I prefer neuron.

Anyone get vuitamins rather than vEYEtamin?

Never heard the sauntimeter, though.

my parents were fobs. they always said vuitamin. i did too until i was made fun of... *sigh*

 

[Goofyone]

More alternate pronounciations that piss me off:

Saph-eee-nus
Res-peer-atory
Neurones
Oh-blike

More overused words that piss me off:

Cognizant
Tarmac (news media are notorious for this one)

Mispronounced words that piss me off:

Nuke-you-lar (nuclear)
Dipsnea (dyspnea) 😡

 

[starayamoskva]

"Sauntimeter" is more often heard in OB than anywhere else. I can't explain it, it just is. So you can cry and kick your heals all you want but if you are interested in an OBGYN residency you better get over it.


The most annoying pretentious word to me is defervesce. Just say the patient is afebrile, we ALL know how intelligent you are and that you can use really big words.

 

[timerick]

Now we all know that if you want to be ultracorrect, according to its neo-Latin etimology, "centimeter" should be pronounced with the accent on the "i". Similarly, "millImeter," "kilOmeter," "pentAmeter," "odOmeter," etc.

In Old English, all words were stressed on the first syllable... it's our historical default. So a lot of Latin words (especially nouns and adjectives) end up being stressed on the first syllable in English, even when it would be impossible in Latin to put the stress there.

Umbilicus -- in Latin, the second "i" is long, and should, therefore be stressed.

Oblique -- this is a French word. The eeks have it here over the ikes, historically.

Skeletal -- sorry, the accent is on the final syllable if you're latinate. On the initial syllable if you want to be traditionally English. There's no excuse for putting the stress on the second "e."

[This post, though factually correct, is presented here lingua-in-buccam. I think prescriptive linguistics is arrogant, myself.]

By the way, how do you pronounce "vuitamin"?

 

[charlatangirl]

Originally posted by Drnunia
Our teacher tell us to learn thing "in toto" and tells us that it would "behoove" to to so. And in our class it is the "duodeeum". When they said medicine was a whole new language, they really ment it.

let me guess. UIC, Dr. Lieska.

howabout these additions to his academic parlance:

-per se
-'i want you to appreciate' (usually in reference to some esoteric relationship between an organ and a potential space)

and then there's Dr. Law who insists renin is pronounced reeeeenin. 🙄 i love the guy but come on.

 

[doctoroctagon]

Originally posted by timerick

[This post, though factually correct, is presented here lingua-in-buccam. I think prescriptive linguistics is arrogant, myself.]

Lingua-in-bucca, not lingua-in-buccam. Use of the accusative case "buccam" would indicate motion. It would be more properly translated as "tongue into cheek." I would have used the ablative case.

Dr. Octagon

 

[Entei]

There are no sautimeters here, and I haven't heard anyone use gestalt yet. Maybe I'm just not listening hard enough.

But what I REALLY hate is when they throw up a slide that's a schematic of... let's say the clotting cascade, and then they call it a "cartoon" of the clotting cascade. As one of my classmates is fond of saying: "WTF? I don't see Bugs Bunny up there."

 

[elbowroom]

Maybe it is just me, but two things i have noticed is that we will learn to "appreciate" everything ie. 'appreciate the shape of the mitochondria on this EM. Also, maybe it is a little thing, but I am tired of Acetyl CoA prononunced AH-Ceteel CoA vs Asettle CoA. Yes, picky, but it still curls my toes.

 

[LovelyRita]

Here's one

ab-DOE-men.

Seriously. Look it up.
🙄
M.

 

[alina_s]

The annoying phrase at my school is "teleologically speaking," highly contagious between lecturers.

 

[Galaxian]

OMG, I actually heard someone say CERV-EYE-CAL pain today. WTF!😕

 

[Stranger]

When I was a kid I read about sex, and always read the word vagina vah-jin-uh. I heard kids at school saying the word, but it sound to me like puh-gyn-uh, so I never realized it was the same word. I inferred from its usage at school that pagina (yes, I know there isn't a p, but I always heard a p) was synonymous with vulva. When we started learning about sex at school, the teacher had us go around and everyone had to take a turn reading aloud from a text. I tuned out for most of it, but decided to start listening when the person next to me was reading so that I'd know where to start. I read along, and realized that vagina and pagina were the same word. At the time I thought it would have been totally embarrassing if I said vah-gin-uh in class.

 

[auster]

Originally posted by elbowroom
Maybe it is just me, but two things i have noticed is that we will learn to "appreciate" everything ie. 'appreciate the shape of the mitochondria on this EM. Also, maybe it is a little thing, but I am tired of Acetyl CoA prononunced AH-Ceteel CoA vs Asettle CoA. Yes, picky, but it still curls my toes.

Hmmm - at Pitt "appreciate" is code for "read this once, but don't bother memorizing it" - I guess they just don't want to come out and SAY "this is the most trivial piece of information, but it relates to my area of research, so I will now bore you with it"... It quickly became my favorite word first year.

 

[rubyness]

How about tr-OW-ma (trauma)

And the "cartoon" thing makes me crazy!!