People throughout the ages have forged group identities by use of their own mannerisms and development of their own slang. Understand what people were saying and communicating with them was a sign of membership of a group. These terms would not find their way into dictionaries as they were not in common use, so it was not possible to look up what they meant. Now anyone can log onto sites like Urban Dictionary and look up such definitions as Selected Fatigue Syndrome.
Fatigue which is used as an excuse when one does not want to perform undesirable tasks such as work.
My co-worker claimed her Chronic Fatigue Syndrome kept her from coming to work, but she had no problems making it to the nightclubs. What she really has is Selective Fatigue Syndrome.
I remember being told by a sociologist in a lecture at some point that medicine is seen by some as a sub-culture in itself. It’s easy to become completely lost in jargon. For this reason, SlangRN.com has been set up to serve as an Urban Dictionary of medicine. Words like donorcycle are defined, but several of the terms from the House of God are thankfully absent.
- Dom
