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apostrophes errants

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December 06, 2006, 06:22
zmježd
apostrophes errants
I've noticed that people speak and write of somebody hacing Alzheimers. The good doctors name was Alzheimer and the disease is called Alzheimer's disease. My question, for the puncto-sticklers among us, is whether the apostrophe should be dropped or kept.

1. It's not my fault, you see, I have Alzheimers.

2. It's not my fault, you see, I have Alzheimer's.

3. It's not my fault, you see, I have Alzheimer's disease.

You see somethinglike (1) often enough. But is (2) proper? If so, how many possessives can be used in this way?


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
December 06, 2006, 08:15
dalehileman
Googling alzheimers apostrophe yields over 16,000 hits, the first of which:

Alzheimer's disease - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaAlzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by ... The term Alzheimer disease (without the apostrophe and s) also continues to be ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer's_disease
December 06, 2006, 21:02
Kalleh
I think, technically, it should be 2, and not 1...though perhaps that's being too prescriptive. While one might see #1 being used a lot," surely using #2 isn't wrong, is it?
December 08, 2006, 09:33
dalehileman
k: No I don't think so, the comma is often used to separate independent clauses
December 08, 2006, 09:59
wordmatic
I think I usually write Alzheimer's without saying disease, and I think that's a case where the "disease" is understood (so it's really there!) Chances are, I've also dropped the apostrophe on occasion.

It's the same with Down's syndrome, which people often use without the "syndrome."

There's actually a disease called Stickler's too...
December 08, 2006, 11:11
dalehileman
Stickler's cell anemia