Early in medical school I was taught that patients can either mean soft, watery stool (frequency unspecified) or frequency of bowel motions when they say “diarrhoea” (and, of course, that it is important to clarify which is meant).
Having an insufficient classical education it was only with time that I realised that the meaning by its etymology would be the latter.
If I’m seeing patients and I’m not conducting the conversation through English,
it is generally German, Spanish or French; I have interpreters available specifically for my Ukrainian patients, but not for other languages.
Does this popular confusion exist in other European languages? We can’t rely on
people following the WHO’s definition, which is fairly clear:
https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diarrhoeal-disease
--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)
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