Words You Hate

BacktotheBeach, ADN, BSN, RN · Mar 13, 2016

"Go live" used for everything from new computer system to the rollout of a new bandaid

Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN · Mar 13, 2016

I mentally roll my eyes when my sister says "When I was pregnant for..." instead of "When I was pregnant with..."

I can't stand it when people say "I fell pregnant." Um...that is not how reproduction works, sister...

poppycat, ADN, BSN · Mar 13, 2016

I can't stand it when people say "I fell pregnant." Um...that is not how reproduction works, sister...

But "falling on" random objects is what sends lots of people to the ER.

BNgurl · Mar 13, 2016

Trialed /trialling it..instead of tested/testing...Arrrgh!!! Sleep hygiene

panniculus, friable, serosanguineous, stridor, bowelsounds times 4 (spoken as a phrase),comatose (ca-mah-toes),cachexia.

jinki · Mar 13, 2016

New grad. Just realized I've been saying clo-pid-ro-gel instead clo-pi-dog-rel. My BF, also a new grad RN, jokingly calls me a know-it-all when I correct his pronunciation, but I would have REALLY loved it if someone corrected my pronunciation a long time ago. (Which is why I do the same for others-- it's seriously not out of malice!)

Back in school, a lot of my classmates kept saying tachy-pee-nea. Oddly enough, some of them pronounce bradypnea just fine, though. At least be consistent and say brady-pee-nea! lol

Oh, and when people spell Filipino as Phillipino (a post somewhere in this thread reminded me of it). For some reason, the word "Phillipino" looks like "hippo" to me! Then why don't you spell your country "Filipines" then? We kinda sorta did! We used to be called Las Islas Filipinas after King Felipe/Phillip II of Spain, then it got translated to English as the Philippine islands. And then more stuff happened and now spellings are weird.

Loracs72 · Mar 13, 2016

I was guilty of saying nuc-u-ler until i was informed that it was the wrong pronunciation !

pleb · Mar 13, 2016

I hate the word "morbid," as in morbid obesity. I get that, in the clinical setting, it is a clinical descriptor, but to list "morbid obesity" on discharge paperwork that we give to the patient seems a little insensitive. BMI is a definitive quantifier. We should just leave it at that. Just my 2Â¢.

MaleICURN, BSN · Mar 13, 2016

QUIET and EASY (as shift).

ADENOIDECTOMY - argh, much easier T&A

ZLindy · Mar 13, 2016

"purulent"

simbawicz · Mar 14, 2016

Taunt. As it the patient's abdomen was Taunt.

luvsltcrn · Mar 14, 2016

Not medical but hate bae. I can never remember what it means and have to look it up every time.

Dogen · Mar 14, 2016

But don't you think that's the lazy way for speech?

You can't really worry about colloquial speech. Speech is constantly changing, because it's essentially arbitrary anyway. Since the beginning of language it's been evolving through use. Your use of language probably appalled someone of an older generation, and that person's use of language probably appalled someone before them... All the way back to the first human utterances.

700 years ago the way we pronounced vowels changed essentially overnight (250 years), called the Great Vowel Shift. You would not have been able to talk to Chaucer (you could have passed notes, though, since he spoke English). Shakespeare would have to speak slowly for you to understand him. Abe Lincoln would think we all sound like idiots.

Which isn't to say we shouldn't know what's proper currently, and use it when appropriate. I just mean that worrying about how people are changing language is sort of like self-flagellation, it only hurts you.

(this random post was brought to you by the letters a, e, i, o, and u.)