Humorous disease names

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:33 AM -0400 6/7/08, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>On Sat, Jun 7, 2008 at 9:19 AM, Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:
>>
>>  (Returning to the subject of James Herriot, I recall one of his clients
>>  referring to "smilin' Harry syphilis"; if I recall correctly, this was a
>>  misinterpretation of "swine erysipelas", but I don't have the books
>>  anymore.)
>
>There's a lot of (mostly apocryphal) medical malapropisms/eggcorns out there:
>
>sick as hell anemia -> sickle cell anemia
>spinal meningitis -> smilin' mighty Jesus

or the even more popular "smile on mighty Jesus"

>Alzheimer's disease -> old timer's disease
>phenobarbital -> peanut butter balls
>etc.
>
and then there are all those disorders of the prostrate...

LH

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org