Monday, December 15, 2008

Great Words Part II

Last year I had a post about great words in medicine. This is a follow up post to that one, demonstrating a few of the new words I have learned in the respiratory module.

Ferruginous: Having the color of iron rust; reddish-brown.
Choryza: sticky nasal secretions, seen in RSV
Recrudescence: To break out anew or come into renewed activity, as after a period of quiescence.
Birefringence: Double refraction. This is seen in microscopy with certain compounds in the body, namely talc and amyloid stained with Congo Red.
Atalectasis: Collapsed alveoli in the lung.

3 comments:

cfg said...

I will work these into my conversation this week if it kills me.

Madame Palmkey said...

OK at least my definitions were funny. You don't seem to understand the game -- when you make up words, the definitions are supposed to be witty inside jokes.

Nurse Graham said...

recrudescence: are you sure that is the definition? The word sounds more like: the art of continuing to play "sick" long after a person has recovered from the "crud".

Of course this definition only works if one puts the emphasis on "crud" as in re-crud-escence.

Looking forward to some more great words from your next rotation. Daniel never shares such words with us.

Dan's sister, Heather (I linked over from Maggie's blog)