that help diagnose papillary thyroid
cancer. As John Biemer outlines in his
article Is it time to Update Antiquated
“ Buzzwords are
often a product of
timing and through
generations and
evolution, they
lose their original
prescribed
meaning.”
Medical Buzzwords? it’s a term with
resonance, first officially appearing in a
1971 book entitled Basic Endocrine
Pathology and referring to the cell nucleus
as “relatively empty (like Orphan Annie
Eyes.).” Practicing american physicians
of the era would have likely understood
the reference because the Little Orphan
Annie comic strip was a daily comic
strip that ran in syndication from 1894
to 1968. In fact, many physicians
currently practicing would understand
Dylan Chadwick
the reference as Little Orphan Annie is
a bona fide cultural icon, but this kind of
ubiquity won’t last forever and decreases
with each passing year. The term is still
taught to young medical students mostly
unfamiliar with the character, many of
whom were born and raised outside of
the united states and have absolutely no
context of Annie, her eyes or the
adventure she shares with her rich
benefactor, Daddy Warbucks.
I’m no stooge. I know that of
buzzwords lend a gleeful air of
contemporaneity to the language we
use, and can even clarify its meaning,
with “laymen” cultural definitions. Still,
for our language to remain truly
effective in a globalizing industry, we
must assure that all who engage it are
acutely familiar with the backstory and
in an age with such rapid informational
turnover, we simply can’t count on our
buzzwords to stay in vogue infinitely.
Do They Really Matter Though?
We likely use buzzwords, phrases and
sayings every day that betray their
original intention. I won’t claim to
know the etymological backstory of
“OK” for example, and I can admit
that I just barely learned that when we
say “pull out all the stops” we’re
actually referring to an organ player
increasing the volume of the
instrument. Does my understanding of
urine of those with necrotic syndrome…
and while these buzzwords work in their
time, we cannot assume that blackberry
this organ player backstory enhance my currants or the Knights of Malta will
knowledge and understanding of the
hold the same relevance today as they
phrase? I'd like to think so.
did in the past. It's for this reason that
Buzzwords are often a product of
our language, often without our own
timing and through generations and
input, updates itself to stay relevant.
evolution, they lose their original
prescribed meaning. Those buzzwords
and phrases with user-friendly
applications (like “the whole 9 yards”)
adapt and continue in our language
while too niche or obscure fall out of
our spoken canon where they stay
hidden away, only resurrected for stodgy
discussion in dusty college literature
programs. Linguists often describe our
language in the same terms they would
a casserole or stew of social
developments, one shaped and flavored
the various ingredients and cultural
impressions throughout history. Biemer
describes antiquated medical phrases
like "currant jelly sputum" to describe
the appearance of bloody mucous
coughed up by someone with
pneumonia or the "Maltese cross" shape
of the fatty casts contained within the
More Work/Little Pay Off
Some medical students use Buzzwords
to keep the staggering overflow of
medical info and jargon straight in
their brains, or simply as mental crib
sheets a big exam. Maybe these
buzzwords offer a quick workaround
explanation for an improvising
professor. That's all fine and good.
Where buzzwords become problematic
is when they require clarification and
explanation in order to be truly useful
to those who hear them. If you think
about it in a The Tibetan Book of
Living and Dying kind of way, all the
time you’d save inventing new term,
even those which sidestep medical
jargon, you’ll lose explaining to the
next few generations what that
buzzword even means.
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