Columbinitis

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:26 PM -0600 1/31/01, Mark Odegard wrote:
>>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.
>
>_________________________________________________________________
Yes, it occurred to me when I read the earlier posting that the
disorder in the subject line looks as though it ought to refer to an
inflammation of the doves (not to be confused with the silence of the
lambs).

larry