diabetes

Douglas G. Wilson douglas at NB.NET
Wed Dec 12 21:40:07 UTC 2001


The full name of the disease usually called "diabetes" is of course
"diabetes mellitus". We "know" instinctively or otherwise that the
inflectional suffixes must match -- e.g., Circus Maximus, Canis familiaris,
anorexia nervosa, Costa Mesa, labia majora, hocus pocus. So it must be
"diabetus mellitus". Maybe a hypercorrection of sorts.

-- Doug Wilson



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