Since the rise of absurd, obfuscatory "politically correct" language, I've only seen one term change that is more accurate. The change from "venerial disease" to "sexually transmitted disease" is more to the point, but it makes the aquisition of such maladies (Wasn't there a song called 'Malady d'Amour?) seem utterly impersonal and mechanical.
To what do we owe this change?

Good question, Asa.

In looking up "venereal" on the online etymology dictionary, it says:

"venereal - early 15c., 'of or pertaining to sexual desire or intercourse,' from L. venereus, from venus (gen. veneris) 'sexual love, sexual desire.' Used of sexually transmitted diseases from 1658; abbreviation V.D. for venereal disease is first recorded 1920."

While "venereal" comes from "sexual love or desire", "sexually transmitted diseases" sound mechanistic, as you said, Asa. I assume that health care practitioners changed the name, but it does sound like a political change, doesn't it?

I don't think that this change was prompted as much by political correctness as much as it was simple ordinary garden variety correctness itself. It wasn't that long ago that a sizable portion of the population believed that "V.D." could be contracted from using a public toilet seat. Correctly labeling it "S.T.D." helped banish this particular bit of ignorance.

Side story: When I was still fairly new to the Air Force (mid-70's) I knew of a jet engine mechanic who told his wife that he had contracted V.D. (this was pre-"S.T.D.") from inhaling jet fuel fumes! And she bought it, or so he reported. I've always believed that she simply accepted a rather foolish lie as a way of avoiding facing a more hurtful situation, but who knows?

But, CJ, "venereal" means "pertaining to sexual desire or intercourse." Doesn't that say it all? A disease pertaining to sexual intercourse? Where would the toilet seat come into play? Why couldn't a toilet seat be just as likely to be used with STDs?

Why couldn't a toilet seat be just as likely to be used with STDs?
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Yeah, "Septic Toilet Diseases."

The "venereal" in V.D. is a bit vague especially for those (let's be polite) with limited vocabularies. "Sexually transmitted diseases" spells it out so that unless you are actually attempting intercourse with a toilet (now there's a "don't ask - don't tell" situation!) you'd never use that excuse if you contracted a disease.

There's a story of a doctor who had to tell a young male patient that he was infected with a venereal disease. The youngster, wondering how he was going to break the news to his parents, asked the doctor, "...Do you think I might have caught it in a public lavatory?"

"Of course, " boomed the doctor, jovially, "But it's rather an uncomfortable place to take a girl to, surely!"

Richard English

quote:

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Originally posted by C J Strolin:
The "venereal" in V.D. is a bit vague especially for those (let's be polite) with limited vocabularies. "Sexually transmitted diseases" spells it out so that unless you are actually attempting intercourse with a toilet (now there's a "don't ask - don't tell" situation!) you'd never use that excuse if you contracted a disease.

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In sexual matters, isn't the usual tendency to substitute a euphemism for the explicit term - rather than the other way around, as you suggest in this case, CJ?

But I do think you have your timing right, in that "venereal disease" is the earlier term. Bartleby says that "venereal disease" is a euphemism for STD, which would imply that "STD" was the earlier-used term of the two. But that is pretty clearly nonsense.

Bartleby says that "venereal disease" is a euphemism for STD, which would imply that
"STD" was the earlier-used term of the two. But that is pretty clearly nonsense.
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Verily! As was my initial point, this seems to be a very rare instance wherein the "euphamism" antedates the simple term. However, as Kalleh pointed out, "VD" really isn't euphamistic, its definition clearly meaning that one contracts a disease during coitus. Therefore, I still don't understand why/how "STD" supplanded "VD."

The venereal diseases were at first considered to be syphilis and gonorrhea. When trichomoniasis became popular, though, and then genital herpes, and several others besides, a more inclusive term was needed, and STD became the useful phrase.

Perhaps also, with the "dumbing down of America" (and perhaps other places too), the public health honchos thought the people most at risk didn't understand what was meant by "venereal" and so they came up with what they considered to be a more-readily-understood term.

(Or is this just the birth of another Urban Legend, brought to you by the same fellow who thought PreMarIn was a contraceptive whose name came from "Pre Marital Intercourse"?)

"Venereal", as Kalleh has pointed out, has been around since the 15th century, meaning "of or relating to sexual pleasure or indulgence" (M-W,) with the secondary meaning of "a : resulting from or contracted during sexual intercourse <venereal infections> b : of, relating to, or affected with venereal disease <a high venereal rate> c : involving the genital organs <venereal sarcoma>". The term "venereal disease" came along in 1658, meaning "a contagious disease (as gonorrhea or syphilis) that is typically acquired in sexual intercourse" (M-W). "STD" was coined in 1976 and comprises "any of various diseases transmitted by direct sexual contact that include venereal diseases (as syphilis, gonorrhea, and chancroid) and other diseases (as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, giardiasis, and AIDS) that are often or sometimes contracted by other than sexual means" (M-W). I thought the two terms were synonymous, but apparently they aren't.

As Shufitz pointed, Bartleby indicates that "venereal disease" is a euphemism for "STD". Bartleby is quoting from the entry "social disease" in The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, by Kenneth G. Wilson. I don't think Wilson was referring to the term "STD", but rather to the diseases the term was coined to describe. He equates "STD" with "venereal disease". All STDs are venereal diseases, but not all venereal diseases are STDs, according to the M-W definition. Wikipedia and encyclopedia.com disagree. Wikipedia equates the two terms and says that "STD" came about "some time around 1990, when public health officials introduced the new term in an effort to improve the clarity of their warnings to teenagers".

I think the term "venereal disease" was originally a euphemism for syphilis.

Tinman

[This message was edited by tinman on Sat Nov 15th, 2003 at 17:09.]