STI

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sat May 14 02:31:53 UTC 2011


I must be getting older every day.  Once there was "VD," but for some reason
that became unusable, maybe because nobodu knew what "venereal" meant, much
less how to spell it.  Then there was "STD," which still sounds affected to
me.

Now, on Dr. Drew's show this evening, a caller wondered when it was
etiquette to tell a prospective squeeze that you secretly have an "STI."
Nobody bothered to define it.  It developed that "STI" means "sexually
transmitted infection," alias (not "aka") "VD" (not "STD").

Is it that HIV is an STI but not an STD because you're not obviously sick?

Then how about "*SRC," "sexually related condition"?  That would include all
kinds of things from crabs to neuroses. And it wouldn't mean the same thing
as "VD."

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list