Where do words come from – Vaccine

Daily we hear the word vaccine. If we could develop one against the corona virus we’d be home free to returning to normal. There are as many opinions about this as there are people on this planet. Will it be safe considering how fast things are moving to develop it? Will it provide protection for more than a few months? No one right now has any answers but what we do know is that vaccines and the concept of vaccination has been around for a long time.
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The word vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae (smallpox of the cow), the term devised by Edward Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1798 in the long title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae Known as the Cow Pox, in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox. In 1881, to honor Jenner, Louis Pasteur proposed that the terms should be extended to cover the new protective inoculations then being developed.
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A brief history (thanks to Wikipedia)
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(It is ironic that given our current corona virus comes from China, they led the way centuries ago with an early method to inoculate people from the smallpox virus.)
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Prior to the introduction of vaccination with material from cases of cowpox (heterotypic immunization), smallpox could be prevented by deliberate inoculation of smallpox virus, later referred to as variolation to distinguish it from smallpox vaccination. The earliest hints of the practice of inoculation for smallpox come during the 10th century in China. The Chinese also practiced the oldest documented use of variolation, dating back to the fifteenth century. They implemented a method of “nasal insufflation” administered by blowing powdered smallpox material, usually scabs, up the nostrils. Various insufflation techniques have been recorded throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries within China. Two reports on the Chinese practice of inoculation were received by the Royal Society in London in 1700; one by Dr. Martin Lister who received a report by an employee of the East India Company stationed in China and another by Clopton Havers.
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Sometime during the late 1760s while serving his apprenticeship as a surgeon/apothecary Edward Jenner learned of the story, common in rural areas, that dairy workers would never have the often-fatal or disfiguring disease smallpox, because they had already contracted cowpox, which has a very mild effect in humans. In 1796, Jenner took pus from the hand of a milkmaid with cowpox, scratched it into the arm of an 8-year-old boy, James Phipps, and six weeks later inoculated (variolated) the boy with smallpox, afterwards observing that he did not catch smallpox. Jenner extended his studies and in 1798 reported that his vaccine was safe in children and adults and could be transferred from arm-to-arm reducing reliance on uncertain supplies from infected cows. Since vaccination with cowpox was much safer than smallpox inoculation, the latter, though still widely practiced in England, was banned in 1840.
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The second generation of vaccines was introduced in the 1880s by Louis Pasteur who developed vaccines for chicken cholera and anthrax, and from the late nineteenth century vaccines were considered a matter of national prestige, and compulsory vaccination laws were passed.
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The twentieth century saw the introduction of several successful vaccines, including those against diphtheria, measles, mumps, and rubella. Major achievements included the development of the polio vaccine in the 1950s and the eradication of smallpox during the 1960s and 1970s. However, vaccines remain elusive for many important diseases, including herpes simplex, malaria, gonorrhea, and HIV.
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Today we are searching at “warp speed” for a vaccine for the corona virus. Will one be developed or will we have to live with this virus like we do with HIV? Only time will tell.

 

Origin of words – Quarantine

The coronavirus might be “novel” to our world. However, applying the practice of quarantine as a successful way to prevent its spread is an ancient and successful procedure that’s been used through out history.
The word quarantine has its origin in word quarantena, the Venetian for “forty days”. Venice initiated a 40-day isolation of ships and people as a measure of disease prevention related to the plague known as the Black Death that hit Medieval Europe between 1348 and 1359.
Such a disaster led governments to establish measures of containment to handle recurrent epidemics. A document from 1377 states that before entering the city-state of Ragusa in Dalmatia (modern Dubrovnik in Croatia), newcomers had to spend 30 days (a trentine) in a restricted place (originally nearby islands) waiting to see whether the symptoms of Black Death would develop.
Though the word quarantine was not used in the ancient world, here are two examples of the concept of isolation to prevent the spread of disease. The first goes back to biblical times. An early mention of isolation occurs in the Biblical book of Leviticus,written in the seventh century BC or perhaps earlier, which describes the procedure for separating out infected people to prevent spread of disease under the Mosaic Law. Leprosy was thus successfully contained in that manner.
Early in Islamic history there are records of mandatory hospital quarantine of special groups of patients, including those with leprosy.  The Islamic prophet Muhammad advised quarantine: “Those with contagious diseases should be kept away from those who are healthy.” Islamic physician, Ibn Sina, also recommended quarantine for patients with infectious diseases, especially tuberculosis.

 

The Pandemic Creates a New Word

We’ve all seen the ads on tv or listened to them on radio, companies who start out with praising our “heroes”, talking about protecting us, or advising us on what to do in order to remain safe. Then at the end you see their logo or hear their name and realize it was just another ad. Here is the definition I’ve come across that’s been created for this sly way to promote products in the pandemic days:
disastertise—to contort a simple message about drive-through lanes or beer delivery to paint a company as public servants during an extraordinary moment.
My next posting will elaborate on this and how it’s just another trick to get you to buy their products.

The Name Game

Long before Alexi, Siri, and Cortana, us geeks had a habit of naming our non-sentient devices. Individual mainframe computers connected together had to identify themselves to us humans, so system managers gave them names. In the early years it was cutesy, pop culture ones like Spock, Kirk, Dr. Who. When PCs hit the scene, we, of course, christened them too. I had Attila, a PC who ever day would assault me with error messages in an attempt to take over the digital galaxy. Then there was Excalibur, who helped me cut thought the tedium of grammar and spell checking. Some of my PCs names were a derivative of their brand names: La Nova was a Lenovo, Delilah is a Dell Latitude!

Once the habit of naming devices became part of my life, I felt compelled to name all non-computer ones as well. Jedra is my Jetta VW wagon, before her was Jeffrey, a Ford Focus named after the salesman who sold her to me. Of course my cell phone had to have name too: Turtle, because it wasn’t a fast Smart phone!

No I don’t name refrigerators or stoves, or TVs. Though I did name my digital camera “Casi” which is the brand name emblazoned on its cover. But I draw the line on watches and clocks. However, items I touch, that have some sort of “operating system” that gives it a form of intelligence and can carry out my commands, those get named.

Oh goodness, I just read about a refrigerator you can talk to and which will remind you when you run low on milk or lettuce. Now what should I name it? Maybe I’d call it “Iceberg”.

What the Heck Does This Word Mean?

My last post was about a word “intexticated” that not only was a clever take on intoxication but also was understandable in the message it tried to get across to the reader. Not all “created” words, clever though they may seem, clearly communicate their message. Here are excerpts from an article that appeared in Biz Bash, (Alesandra Dubin, Reader’s Forum, 2013 p52) a magazine that writes about the meeting and event industry, where you might chuckle at the speaker’s phrasing but wind up scratching your head as to what he meant.

In the article In Conversation Rohit Talwary the C.E.O. of United Kingdom based Fast Future Research, (where he applies his skills as a futurist to understand and project what’s ahead for the meeting and event industry) was interviewed about upcoming trends. Here are some of his head scratching gems:

“The consumerization of technology is turning us all into technology sophisticates and datasexuals.”  Datasexuals? When did data have the ability to be sexual? Don’t think I want to transgender myself into that!

“We have to stop thinking of our events as one-offs and start to see them as platforms for year-round engagement – the focal point of an ongoing experience.” Hmmm, meetings and events, in most people’s opinion, already take up too much of our time, so now they should be an “ongoing experience?” Yikes, count me out.

“Good business events…also connect industry investors with local innovators and help in attracting inward investment.” Is this like meditation? Or stock trading? He does go on to explain but it takes two long convoluted sentences to clarify this one point.

“Inevitably, those who fail to innovate and create new business models will go to the wall.” He never elaborates on what this “wall” means or what will happen when one goes to it.

“The best [event planners] have an excellent ecosystem of support mechanisms in place to help them stay abreast of developments…” A system, yes, but an “eco”system connotes something entirely different. Usually something green and alive!

As you can see, people who write or talk like this can be very entertaining without even trying. But if you are in a business communication situation, avoiding cleverness is usually the better path to take. To give him credit, he did elaborate on most of his unique statements. However, it is always better when writing a piece with the intent of imparting information to your reader to be concise and to the point, thus not wasting your reader’s time by making them wade through a mountain of confusing words to figure out what you meant.

“Numwords” Words Where Numerals Replace Letters

You’ve used them texting or tweeting in order to save time or characters. But why on earth would anyone create restaurant names like “Thir13en” or a theatre “2econd Stage Theatre” or title for a TV show “Numb3rs”? When reading it silently to yourself, no problem. But how do you pronounce it if, say, you’re on the phone: “Meet me at <?>” you usually wind up spelling it out. 

OK, they are clever, they substitute numerals for letters in a way that looks original and ties the meaning of the numerals to the concept of the name. When you see them you can grasp their originality or playfulness. But when you have to speak them or spell them to someone, usually the explanation creates more confusion that the creator took into consideration.

Urls have used them for years as a way to get around already taken domain names. But in the real world, yes, this might create an original name for your business but is it memorable? Will it last the test of time? What kind of image does it give your brand? Don’t let visually oriented people on your team fall in love with this cutesy way out of a naming problem. And if you think only urls and business names have become victim to this trend, I hear that people are going the numword route in naming their kids! That to me is “dumwords”.

Texting and Twitter – new languages?

“Shorthand” the writing of common English words eliminating letters has been around for decades. So has jargon and slang that use words specific to an industry or social group. But with the advent of texting, and Twitter, you could say new modern “languages” have been born.

Twitter is really more like a word game. It challenges you to communicate within the confines of its 140 character limitation. Sort of like a journalist having to come up with a good short headline for a story. Only on Twitter you can contract words, leave out letters, or use words that are familiar with your readers but which other groups wouldn’t understand. (Read some of Lady Gaga’s Tweets and you’ll get the idea – who the heck are “little Monsters”???!)

Texting doesn’t put a limit on characters or the number of words but like old fashioned shorthand, it is easier to type a message using special words or leaving out letters. I believe this grew from the fact that your keyboard is so tiny, eliminating keystrokes makes typing the message easier. It took me forever to learn how to “thumb” a message (using my other fingers was a nightmare) and I still am amazed when I see a man with huge “paws” entering a message quickly on a tiny device!

 The result is that people have become so used to communicating in this “shorthand” language, that even at a full sized computer keyboard they don’t want to type out full words. Young people have an especially hard time switching from shorthand to normal English. This, of course, impedes communications such as work related correspondence or creating a job search cover letter that sounds professional.

It has also created what used to be called “slang”, words specific to a certain subculture, that are not in the dictionary. First is was using letters to describe things like the infamous LOL. Then it morphed into respelling words so they were shortened like substituting the numeral 4 instead of spelling “for”. Or getting real cre8tive just for the heck of it. Of course there are the totally new words like “hash tag” that in itself spawned “bashtagging” (bashing a company on Twitter using its own hash tag). Or giving a word another meaning for example a “Tweet” once meant only the sound a bird makes! Good or bad? Well, it’s always been said that language is a living thing and changes over time. We don’t speak the way they did in Shakespeare’s day, so why not #change?

Here are a few websites that will have you laughing, (or should I say twittering) or teach you a thing or two about these new “languages”:

Mashable’s Twitterspeak

A dictionary of Twitter words

For texting there are just too many good ones. So type “texting vocabulary” into your search engine of choice and have fun surfing the results!

Fun With Langage

 

This word would be especially useful to us senior folks!

Exhaustipated: Just too tired to give a shit.

The Birth of Some Popular Words

Over the last 3 decades inventors in garages and corporate labs have created a whole slew of gadgets that not only delighted us and occasionally drove us crazy, but also changed who we are and how we relate to each other. In the process of naming these devices they gave birth to new words and phrases.

Ever wonder when these words were born? Here is a list of the most popular ones:

Cellphone – in 1983 Motorola introduced its DynaTAC 8000x, weighing in at 2lbs and costing $4,000!

Laptop – Though hardly considered a device you could place on your lap, the Compaq Portable launched in 1983 was the first portable computer, and weighed in at a hefty 28 lbs. But it set the trend for smaller and smaller machines.

Karaoke – this machine was invented in 1983 and has led to lots of fun, stupidity, and embarrassment.

Caller ID – in 1984 BellSouth introduced this invention and revolutionized the way we respond to telephone calls.

Digital camera – “digital” and “camera” have been around for decades. But in 1986 Kodak married the two into a pricey camera for professional photographers. Eight years later Apple produced the first consumer version and the way we view our world hasn’t been the same since!

PowerPoint – Where would speakers be without this invention that Microsoft unveiled for the PC platform in 1990?

Doppler Radar – in 1990 it became a household word as weather forecasters brought up-to-the-minute images to TV.

Lithium rechargeable battery– Originally making its debut in the Sony camcorder in 1991, this revolutionary battery made possible the powering of all those power hungry devices developed since then.

DirectTV (home satellite TV) – Once dishes were so pricey and large, they’d pull down your house if you mounted one on your roof! Then in 1994 (yes they’ve been around that long!) DirectTV launched its services with smaller versions for restaurants and bars (or your backyard). In time technology made them so small that they now can be mounted outside your window. Today as competition to cable services, they have popped up on rooftops like mushrooms, the 21^st century’s version of the antenna.

DVD – in 1995 Americans traded their video cassettes for hours of extended movie watching with behind the scenes specials, outtakes and bloopers included.

GPS – (The Global Positioning System) originally developed in the 1970s by the US department of Defense it took until 1995 for Oldsmobile to introduce the first GPS navigation system available in a car, called GuideStar.

Blackberry – in 1999 an obscure Canadian company, Research in Motion, produced this mobile e-mail device.

TiVo – This gadget is now used as a verb (as in “I’m Tivo-ing Survivor tonight”) and changed TV viewing habits for millions after it was shipped in 1999.

iPod – where would music be without this device. Introduced in 2001 by Apple, it would become the most popular portable music player available.