"a little sting"

[Mark A. Mandel]

Arnold wrote:
   >>>>>
and now i can add, from direct observation at the Palo Alto Medical
Foundation this afternoon:  "a little sting", meaning 'there will be
a little sting'.  the m.d. was a bit taken aback when i commented on
his usage as he was wielding the hypodermic needle.
 <<<<<

Yeah, doctors can be funny that way. You were turning the tables by applying
your professional expertise to him. When I told mine about my tendinitis,
she was at first totally unable to deal with my description of the site of
the first symptom as "my left extensor indicis". Patients just aren't
expected to know and use accurate medical terminology.

And in fact I don't control a greater medical vocabulary than the average
educated hyperliterate layman :-). I just happen to have specialized in
American Sign Language and to have taken a term in "the anatomy of the
forelimb", as they call it over there.

-- Mark
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]