cath v.

[Laurence Horn]

On Oct 30, 2012, at 8:08 AM, Charles C Doyle wrote:

> On TV last night I beheld an ad for catheters.  Written on the screen:  "End painful cathing."
>
> The form "cathing" garners some 343,000 raw Google hits.  Of course, "cath" itself, as a verb, is practically unsearchable.
>
> Wouldn't a more plausible back-formation be "cathet"?
>
But it's equally likely that the verb is a zero-formation from the nominal "cath".  I've had one in my chest for 10 years and it's a "portacath", or alternatively "port" or "cath" for short.  Google turns up examples of "cath lab", "cath procedure", etc., although most of the occurences of "cath" do fetch "port-a-cath".

Anyway, "cathet" doesn't sound like a possible, or likely, verb (not even sure which syllable it should be stressed on), while "cath" is a perfectly good one.

LH

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