[Ads-l] patient zero

[Dan Goncharoff]

I have always thought about it a 'degrees of separation' from the source.
The source itself has zero degrees of separation.

DanG

On Mon, Nov 10, 2014 at 2:27 PM, Chris Waigl <chris at lascribe.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Chris Waigl <chris at LASCRIBE.NET>
> Subject:      Re: patient zero
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> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 7 Nov 2014, at 19:02, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET> wrote:
>
> > Also, why not "patient one"? Metaphorical extension of "ground zero=94?
>
> My understanding, or honestly, guess, is that epidemiologist want to =
> speak of primary, secondary, tertiary carriers (in the plural), or =
> infections, or waves, or some other technical term. So the singular, =
> special one would have to come before =93primary=94.
>
> Chris Waigl
>
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