Columbinitis

Mark Odegard markodegard at HOTMAIL.COM
Wed Jan 31 21:26:01 UTC 2001


>The word refers to an overreaction to a student talking about bombing a
>school. Probably not a word to stay, though...
>
>Benjamin Barrett

The use of -itis in the sense of 'condition caused by a reaction to
something', is common enough, but they all seem to be nonce formation, with
none of them becoming permanent.

It's probably because enough people know that -itis means 'inflammation', as
with arthritis or dermatitis.

One of my favorite all-time bizarre plurals is arthritides for arthritis.

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