It may be the nurse in me, but I hate the word "jab" that people are using for the COVID-19 shot. It just sounds so brutal - "I'm going to jab you!" I haven't heard that used before for a shot or injection, have you?

Really common in the UK (but a noun not a verb - I'm giving you a jab... rather than... I'm jabbing you.) In fact I was going to write it myself in my other post before it occurred to me that it might not be as common in the US and I reworded my sentence.

Agree, Kalleh. It doesn't fit into the usual calming remark by the nurse: 'Now you may feel a little jab. A "little jab" sounds like it would hurt like hell, but just leave a bruise as opposed to knocking you over.

Be all that as it may, I got my first dose of Pfizer vaccine yesterday and didn’t even feel the injection. It’s a very fine needle.

Ditto on the painless injection. Mostly I hear, "...a little poke."

Hey, bethree5, please check in on the Bluffing Game, "baggywrinkle," and send me a daffynition or three!

quote:

Originally posted by bethree5:
Agree, Kalleh. It doesn't fit into the usual calming remark by the nurse: 'Now you may feel a little jab. A "little jab" sounds like it would hurt like hell, but just leave a bruise as opposed to knocking you over.

Another US/UK difference then. Nobody here would say "have you been vaccinated" or "have you had your vaccination". It would almost universally be "have you had your jabs". Nobody would even give the phrase a second thought and certainly nobody would consider it harsh or brutal.

That must be why jab is heard so much now - COVID-19 news is global. In the past, I've not heard that, and it certainly wouldn't be used in place of the word vaccination. I can't imagine telling a mom that her child needs a jab.

I bet jab will be a 2021 word of the year.

I got my 1st Pfizer shot last Saturday. I was in a long line of cars and as we drove up we would get a shot. I told them that now I could say I was in a drive-by shooting.

I wouldn't for a moment dream of accusing the British Government of mixed messages but according to them...

It will all be over by the end of June when all restrictions will be lifted.

But

The furlough scheme whereby people who can't work during the pandemic receive money from the Government has been extended until September.

quote:

Originally posted by tinman:
... now I could say I was in a drive-by shooting.

That shows their real colors, Bob.

Tinman, congrats on your vaccination. We are getting closer to normalcy. I wonder what's next.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
We are getting closer to normalcy.

Isn't Normalcy on the French coast?
Yeah, yeah, I know, language changes, but I can't convince myself that "normality" is no longer normal.

I wonder how long it will be before the crossbar in the letter, "A" will be a thing of the past?
It's being dumped by more and more "trendy" businesses.

Ah well - I meant normality.

Which President was it who popularized "normalcy?" IIRC, it was early 20th C. Ah, here it is! https://www.etymonline.com/word/normalcy

Well, that's a new one to me. I did not know it was a mathematical condition.

Me neither, Kalleh. Apparently there are other uses in math besides the one about right angles. It rang a bell with my mathematician/ engr husband, who remembered using both "normalcy" and "normalize." He googled around and came up with this definition of "normal number": a number where any non-zero digit is not repeated any more times than any other." Whoop-dee-doo! He says it's 'one of these calculus concepts' that apparently has some use in the advanced-mathnerd world.

It is normality in statistics.