Tuesday 25 February 2014

New Words


A ditty which was going the rounds just before the outbreak of World War II, when loads of women were signing up to the ATS:

Rockabye baby, or Daddy will spank.
Mummy’s in Aldershot, driving a tank.
When the Camp’s over, Mum will return 
And oh! what a lot of new words you will learn!

I’ve been learning a lot of new words lately too, but they’re mostly medical and hence off limits.  (You don’t want to know about ‘distal interphalangeal joints', do you?)
But here’s one I hadn’t come across before which has cropped up three times in a week – once in a medical context, twice in journalism – ‘triage’.  I naturally assumed it must be trending, so I looked it up.

I’m sure my uniquely well-informed readers will be familiar with its standard meaning (something to do with applying scarce resources effectively) – but did you know it also means ‘broken coffee beans?’
Just sharing.  I promise to get heavy again by the weekend.

5 comments:

  1. Surely it's a UKIP leader straining to be understood?

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  2. You are indeed lucky if it's that long since you've needed to attend A&E, that term's been around for years.

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  3. I was amused to learn this week that the writer of the the WW1 song "Bless 'em All" hadn't used the word "bless" at all.

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  4. "Triage" usually involves a lot of more or less silent people lying on the ground - thank you, i can do without it. And had absolutely no clue about broken coffee beans !

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  5. hmmm some medication I take cause imflamation of those joints and it's not so nice so my condolences.
    My understanding of triage is that someone looks at you before the alloted time for looking at you runs out thereby ticking the looked at in time box. That person also decides of you need to be look at by someone else in a short, medium or next week time frame and slots you into one along with the time keeping baton and can then retire to coffee and chocolate hobnobs secure in a job well done. Then you wait...

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