An ad on TV has been offering free meters for testing blood sugar levels and asking people interestd to contact "our diabetic consultants".

Should they not be "diabetes consultants"? I don't think they are all afflicted with the disease, making them all diabetics. Or are they really that sweet?

I agree.

on the other hand you have diabetic food and diabetic comas.

But would you consult about diabetes or diabetics? I assume the expert is discussing the disease, not the patient, since they are apparently not doctors of medicine -- only consultants.

And at best, the terminology is ambiguous.

Goofy, in your examples the "diabetic" describes the food or the coma, while in the previous example the "diabetic" shouldn't describe the consultant. The consultant is an expert in diabetes. I'd agree with proof on this.

In "diabetic food", the food isn't diabetic. In "diabetic consultants", the consultants aren't diabetic. "Diabetic consultants" seems to be an extension of uses like "diabetic food". I agree that "diabetic consultants" is potentially ambiguous, but I'm not sure that it's effectively ambiguous.

Well that's a good point about the food...though clearly the coma is diabetic. Perhaps it should be called food for diabetic people. Actually, I haven't heard "diabetic food" that often, though I am sure there are many Google hits about it.

-ic

It boils down to whether words have a single, inherent meaning or not. Observation of language leads me to think the latter rather than the former. The AHD has both meanings listed: "(1) of, relating to, having, or resulting from diabetes [...]; (2) intended for use by a person with diabetes" (link). Just off the top of the Google, we have: diabetic coma, diabetic desserts, diabetic diet, diabetic patient, diabetic recipes, and diabetic shoes. Oh, and if that's not enough, it can be used as a noun, a diabetic. Any suggestions on an alternartive adjectival form? The problem with that is folks get nauseous and nauseated mixed up, so even if there is another adjective to use, it would probably lead to less communication than using the one we have. I've heard African-Americans use the term sugar as a synonym of diabetes. Do any of you know other words for this all-too-common condition?

quote:

Originally posted by zmježd:
The problem with that is folks get nauseous and nauseated mixed up

And if I can just drag this thread off track, there is no mix-up when people use nauseous to mean "affected with nausea"; the rule that nauseous has only one meaning ("causing nausea") was invented in the 50's but in fact the OED lists 3 meanings of nauseous, one of which is "affected with nausea". the many forms of nausea