Originally posted by tinman:
One word in that list that I'd never heard of was
fomite. The OED Online defines it as
"Something that is capable of transferring a disease from one place or individual to another;
spec. an object or substance that is contaminated with an infectious agent and capable of transmitting it by direct contact," and traces it back to 1860 (an earlier word,
fomes goes back to 1800.
Here are the citations:
1860 R. F. Burton
Lake Regions Central Afr. I. x. 369 This must be an efficacious fomite of cutaneous and pectoral disease.
1914
Med. Council 19 363/1 Dust is a fomite.
1994
Richmond (Va.)
Times-Dispatch 31 Oct. e1/2 The trouble was that I'd touched too many flu-infested fomites.
2017
Mirror (Electronic ed.) 25 Jan. As for the recommendation that women sleep with a jade egg in their vaginas I would like to point out that jade is porous which could allow bacteria to get inside and so the egg could act like a fomite.
That last quote got my attention, So I looked it up. I found out that Gwyneth Paltrow made the the jade eggs endorsement.
Dr. Jen Gunter, a GYN, responded
quote:
As for the recommendation that women sleep with a jade egg in their vaginas I would like to point out that jade is porous which could allow bacteria to get inside and so the egg could act like a fomite. This is not good, in case you were wondering. It could be a risk factor for bacterial vaginosis or even the potentially deadly toxic shock syndrome.
The only thing your post got right is to check with your doctor before using one. So let me give you some free advice, don’t use vaginal jade eggs.
