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Picture of Kalleh
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I thought you might be interested in some of these COVID-19 words. Just think, back in January 2020 many of these words were seldom used.

The only one I've been skeptical of is "social distancing." It always has seemed contrived to me. 5 1/2 feet is too close, but 6 feet is just right?
 
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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 [i]Mirror[i] (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.
 
Posts: 2878 | Location: Shoreline, WA, USAReply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
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.
 
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I assume that fomite is related to the much more common foment?

I think Gwyneth Paltrow has become quite jaded about her eggs.
 
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Fomite is also the one that I had never heard before.

Commanding Officer of Troy (c 1200 BCE): I'm not sure we should bring that wooden horse into the city. The fomite be up to something.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
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Big Grin
 
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…and here all these years I’ve thought of it as being vaguely connected to “foam,” some kind of droplet which can carry germs to another potential host, and typically (but not exclusively of respiratory origin
 
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We shoulda asked Cliff Clavin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Clavin
 
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Fomite is also the one that I had never heard before.
OMG - a word I've heard of but some others on WC haven't? This must be a first. Fomite is fairly common in health care.
 
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Tinman, I love your fascination with the dictionary.

Frankly, I rather miss the days of a real dictionary. Most use the internet these days, rather than a dictionary. Yet, dictionaries have so much more depth.
 
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quote:
Originally posted by Kalleh:
quote:
Fomite is also the one that I had never heard before.
OMG - a word I've heard of but some others on WC haven't? This must be a first. Fomite is fairly common in health care.


I'll bet arnie would have known it. Still sorely missed around here.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
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Re: Jade eggs - I recall a story about Casanova, perhaps apocryphal. He would present his partners with a gold egg, ostensibly to protect against disease but "actually" as a way to give them something of value for their favors without being so crude as to pay them...
 
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