LL-L "False friends" 2004.06.10 (09) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 10.JUN.2004 (09) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Andy (Scots-Online) <andy at scots-online.org>
Subject: LL-L "False friends" 2004.06.10 (07) [E]

> Sandy wrote:
>
> > "seek": used like the Dutch "ziek" rather than the English "sick".
>
> As in the Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children.
> It is not full of children who are disgusting, gruesome, macabre or in any
> way mentally deranged.
> They are simply ill ;-)
>
> Andy Eagle
>
> ----------
>
R. F. Hahn wrote:
>
> Andy (above):
>
> > It is not full of children who are disgusting, gruesome, macabre or in
any
> > way mentally deranged.
> > They are simply ill ;-)
>
> But doesn't English use "sick" in this sense as well?  Surely, "sick" in
the
> sense of "deranged," "twisted" etc. is a relatively recent semantic
> derivation.  I suppose in American English  "mad" has undergone a similar
> specialized shift fairly recently to mean "angry," which is why many
> Americans made jokes about the term "mad cow disease," imagining herds of
> infuriated cattle.
>
> > As in the Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children.
>
> And the one in Toronto, Canada (whose website http://www.sickkids.on.ca/,
> incidentally, seems to treat the location as a secret. You have to dig to
> find it ... Good website planning! "Hospital for Sick Children"?! Duh!
> *Everyone* in the world knows where *that* is!).
>
> Anyway, this name has always puzzled me.  "Hospital for *Sick* Children?"
> Is there one for healthy children as well?  How about "Children's
Hospital"
> or "Pediatric Hospital" like elsewhere?  Or is there something I'm
missing?
> Might "hospital" once have had other meanings as well, such as that of
> "hostel"?  Perhaps in Scots, transferred to Scottish English?

I don't think you're missing anything. A friend of mine used to live near
the aforementioned hospital.
I could never walkpast without grinning an thinking of it being full of
disgusting, gruesome, macabre, mentally deranged children. Even though this
interpretation is based on a relatively recent semantic change. Maybe just
my 'sick' sense of humour. But as you ask 'why sick children'? There are no
doubt many institutions called X Children's Hospital. This is possibly the
start of a new thread Institutions where the obvious is stated in the title.

Andy Eagle

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