| Author |
Message |
Zephir Woodwood
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 5:01 am
Post subject: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
In our laboratory we usually refer to "stool" while outside the laboratory
people generally speak of faeces.
I've never understood the difference except when as a young medical student
one professor used to talk about straining to stool.
I prefer having a "stool manual" as opposed to a "faeces manual"
I'd appreciate your thoughts. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Charles Riggs
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:14 am
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 23:01:36 GMT, "Zephir Woodwood"
<zwnospam1965@hotmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | In our laboratory we usually refer to "stool" while outside the laboratory
people generally speak of faeces.
I've never understood the difference except when as a young medical student
one professor used to talk about straining to stool.
I prefer having a "stool manual" as opposed to a "faeces manual"
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
|
The person here who wrote about breast feeding quite recently, another
topic civilized people don't discuss at the dinner table, may be happy
to exchange views with you on the topic of faeces. I doubt you'll find
many other takers.
--
Charles Riggs
Actually, there isn't an accented
letter in my email address |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Jim Ward
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:16 am
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
In alt.usage.english Zephir Woodwood <zwnospam1965@hotmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | I'd appreciate your thoughts.
|
"poppycock" comes from the Dutch for soft crap. They probably have
a word for hard crap, but I don't know it is.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-pop1.htm |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Peter Moylan
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 9:20 am
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
Zephir Woodwood hayshed:
| Quote: | In our laboratory we usually refer to "stool" while outside the laboratory
people generally speak of faeces.
I've never understood the difference except when as a young medical student
one professor used to talk about straining to stool.
I prefer having a "stool manual" as opposed to a "faeces manual"
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
|
"Stool" is technically a euphemism, and I'd oppose it on those grounds.
Medical euphemisms only serve to confuse the patients.
("Have you passed any flatus today?" "No, doc, but I've sure been
farting a lot." Others might well prefer to answer "no" rather than
admit they didn't understand the question.)
Originally the "stool" was the place where you sat while crapping,
hence the "straining at stool" reference. (NB: not "straining
to stool".) Eventually some not-so-bright sparks must have started
using the word to refer to the product of sitting on the stool.
Even if you accept the euphemism, the two words don't quite mean
the same. "Faeces" is a collective term, while a "stool" is a
single turd, invariably in solid form. If you have diarrhoea you
produce faeces but not stools.
--
Peter Moylan peter at ee dot newcastle dot edu dot au
http://eepjm.newcastle.edu.au (OS/2 and eCS information and software) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
don groves
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 9:24 am
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
In article <utqml05gnia3mkl936ge6oflhc5kpod4vi@4ax.com>,
chriggs@éircom.net wrote...
| Quote: | On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 23:01:36 GMT, "Zephir Woodwood"
zwnospam1965@hotmail.com> wrote:
In our laboratory we usually refer to "stool" while outside the laboratory
people generally speak of faeces.
I've never understood the difference except when as a young medical student
one professor used to talk about straining to stool.
I prefer having a "stool manual" as opposed to a "faeces manual"
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
The person here who wrote about breast feeding quite recently, another
topic civilized people don't discuss at the dinner table, may be happy
to exchange views with you on the topic of faeces. I doubt you'll find
many other takers.
|
Bush II may talk about it with him. He used the word several
times in a recent speech about abortion, instead of the more
usual term, fetus. We know he's an idiot, but he's our idiot.
--
dg (domain=ccwebster) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bloke
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 10:38 am
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 23:01:36 GMT, "Zephir Woodwood"
<zwnospam1965@hotmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | In our laboratory we usually refer to "stool" while outside the laboratory
people generally speak of faeces.
I've never understood the difference except when as a young medical student
one professor used to talk about straining to stool.
I prefer having a "stool manual" as opposed to a "faeces manual"
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
|
The only important thing is that your readers understand precisely
what you mean. If you are writing a manual on this subject, your
audience is, presumably, of pre-school age (assuming that most people
older than this need no tuition). Can I suggest the word poo?
Bloke |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Michael DeBusk
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:08 am
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 23:01:36 GMT, Zephir Woodwood
<zwnospam1965@hotmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | I prefer having a "stool manual" as opposed to a "faeces manual"
|
Place the manual in the lab and tell everyone what it's for. Not what
it *is*, but what it is *for*. Do not write anything on it.
After six weeks, find out what everyone is calling it. Write that on
the cover and spine.
--
Michael DeBusk, Co-Conspirator to Make the World a Better Place
Did he update http://home.earthlink.net/~debu4335/ yet? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Steve Hayes
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 12:56 pm
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
On 30 Sep 2004 03:20:41 GMT, peter@seagoon.newcastle.edu.au (Peter Moylan)
wrote:
| Quote: | Zephir Woodwood hayshed:
In our laboratory we usually refer to "stool" while outside the laboratory
people generally speak of faeces.
I've never understood the difference except when as a young medical student
one professor used to talk about straining to stool.
I prefer having a "stool manual" as opposed to a "faeces manual"
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
"Stool" is technically a euphemism, and I'd oppose it on those grounds.
Medical euphemisms only serve to confuse the patients.
|
There was a monarch in Ghana who, according to British anthropologists, was
not enthroned, but enstooled.
Was that a euphemism or a dysphemism?
And then I have heard the loo referred to as the throne room.
And a friend of mine, who was a car fan, on looking inside a Ferrari remarked
"That's my dicing throne."
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Barratt
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 1:58 pm
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
Michael DeBusk wrote:
| Quote: | On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 23:01:36 GMT, Zephir Woodwood
zwnospam1965@hotmail.com> wrote:
I prefer having a "stool manual" as opposed to a "faeces manual"
Place the manual in the lab and tell everyone what it's for. Not what
it *is*, but what it is *for*. Do not write anything on it.
After six weeks, find out what everyone is calling it. Write that on
the cover and spine.
|
What if they're calling it "toilet paper"?
--
Regards,
Mark Barratt |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Tedfriet
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 2:07 pm
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
Jim Ward wrote:
| Quote: | In alt.usage.english Zephir Woodwood <zwnospam1965@hotmail.com> wrote:
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
"poppycock" comes from the Dutch for soft crap. They probably have
a word for hard crap, but I don't know it is.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-pop1.htm
|
Dear Mr Quinion is mistaken is this. 'Poppycock' does indeed comes from
Dutch 'poep' ='crap' soft or not, it's just the universal colloquial word
for 'faeces'. There's a word in Dutch for the soft variety, but as there are
people in this ng who are of the opinion that something so natural as
"breastfeeding" 'civilized people don't discuss at the dinner table', I
think they will be mightily offended by my giving the translation in English
for this here.
BTW we must be a very uncivilized people as we have no compunction in
talking about breastfeeding at the dinner table.
Cheers
Only after the last tree has been cut down,
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish has been caught,
Only then will you find out that money cannot be eaten.
Cree Indian prophecy. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Donna Richoux
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 2:51 pm
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
don groves <dgroves@domain.net> wrote:
| Quote: | In article <utqml05gnia3mkl936ge6oflhc5kpod4vi@4ax.com>,
chriggs@éircom.net wrote...
On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 23:01:36 GMT, "Zephir Woodwood"
zwnospam1965@hotmail.com> wrote:
In our laboratory we usually refer to "stool" while outside the laboratory
people generally speak of faeces.
I've never understood the difference except when as a young medical student
one professor used to talk about straining to stool.
I prefer having a "stool manual" as opposed to a "faeces manual"
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
The person here who wrote about breast feeding quite recently, another
topic civilized people don't discuss at the dinner table, may be happy
to exchange views with you on the topic of faeces. I doubt you'll find
many other takers.
Bush II may talk about it with him. He used the word several
times in a recent speech about abortion, instead of the more
usual term, fetus.
|
Sorry, but that's a hoax. Snopes, which runs the Urban Legends Reference
Pages, is a reasonably reliable source on this sort of thing:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/fetal.asp
| Quote: | We know he's an idiot, but he's our idiot.
|
Yeah, well. For the time being.
Listen, this is purely a personal wish of mine, but as the election
nears, I really hope people can restrain themselves from filling this
newsgroup with "funny things the candidates were said to have said" and
political scandals and all that. I think it gets very tempting to do so
-- "look, it relates to language!" -- but it can get overwhelming.
--
Hopefully -- Donna Richoux |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Peter Duncanson
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 5:01 pm
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 06:56:25 GMT, hayesmstw@hotmail.com (Steve Hayes) wrote:
| Quote: | On 30 Sep 2004 03:20:41 GMT, peter@seagoon.newcastle.edu.au (Peter Moylan)
wrote:
Zephir Woodwood hayshed:
In our laboratory we usually refer to "stool" while outside the laboratory
people generally speak of faeces.
I've never understood the difference except when as a young medical student
one professor used to talk about straining to stool.
I prefer having a "stool manual" as opposed to a "faeces manual"
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
"Stool" is technically a euphemism, and I'd oppose it on those grounds.
Medical euphemisms only serve to confuse the patients.
There was a monarch in Ghana who, according to British anthropologists, was
not enthroned, but enstooled.
|
In Ghana enstoolment is customary for tribal chiefs and their wives.
The stools are wooden. Wooden stools are on sale to tourists so that they
can enstool themselves.
| Quote: | Was that a euphemism or a dysphemism?
And then I have heard the loo referred to as the throne room.
And a friend of mine, who was a car fan, on looking inside a Ferrari remarked
"That's my dicing throne."
|
--
Peter Duncanson
UK (posting from a.e.u) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mark Barratt
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 7:19 pm
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
Tedfriet wrote:
| Quote: | Jim Ward wrote:
In alt.usage.english Zephir Woodwood <zwnospam1965@hotmail.com> wrote:
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
"poppycock" comes from the Dutch for soft crap. They probably have
a word for hard crap, but I don't know it is.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-pop1.htm
Dear Mr Quinion is mistaken is this. 'Poppycock' does indeed comes from
Dutch 'poep' ='crap' soft or not, it's just the universal colloquial word
for 'faeces'.
|
So 'pappekak' means 'crap crap'?
--
Regards,
Mark Barratt |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Richard Chambers
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 9:54 pm
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
"Charles Riggs" <chriggs@éircom.net> wrote
| Quote: |
In our laboratory we usually refer to "stool" while outside the
laboratory
people generally speak of faeces.
I've never understood the difference except when as a young medical
student
one professor used to talk about straining to stool.
I prefer having a "stool manual" as opposed to a "faeces manual"
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
The person here who wrote about breast feeding quite recently, another
topic civilized people don't discuss at the dinner table, may be happy
to exchange views with you on the topic of faeces. I doubt you'll find
many other takers.
--
|
Charles, you seem to be abnormally uptight about breastfeeding. What's the
matter with you? It's a perfectly natural thing to do. My daughter has been
doing it for the past eight months, and it is a heartwarming sight. We do
discuss it with her at the dinner table, with no embarassment whatsoever.
One thing the British and the US Americans have in common is this unnatural
attitude towards breasts. The highest-selling tabloid newspapers in Britain
are those that display topless photographs on page 3. Yet 28 years ago, when
my wife found a quiet corner in a public park to discreetly feed my Claire
(the same daughter who is now providing the next generation with milk) she
had to endure stares from several members of the public. She was doing it in
the park only because the Ladies toilet was smelly and unhealthy for the
baby.
There is something wrong with the psychological state of an entire
nationality (and this applies, unfortunately, to both the British and the
American nationality) which
(a) has an insatiable appetite for topless photographs
and:-
(b) finds it reprehensible or embarassing to show breasts in public, even
for feeding a baby.
Somewhere we have got our values upside-down. We, both British and US
American, are (as a gross generalisation) uptight beyond all reason.
Richard Chambers Leeds UK. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
don groves
Guest
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 10:23 pm
Post subject: Re: Stool and Faeces as words for manuals |
|
|
In article <1gkx9p6.15lgfqpn0m022N%trio@euronet.nl>,
trio@euronet.nl wrote...
| Quote: | don groves <dgroves@domain.net> wrote:
In article <utqml05gnia3mkl936ge6oflhc5kpod4vi@4ax.com>,
chriggs@éircom.net wrote...
On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 23:01:36 GMT, "Zephir Woodwood"
zwnospam1965@hotmail.com> wrote:
In our laboratory we usually refer to "stool" while outside the laboratory
people generally speak of faeces.
I've never understood the difference except when as a young medical student
one professor used to talk about straining to stool.
I prefer having a "stool manual" as opposed to a "faeces manual"
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
The person here who wrote about breast feeding quite recently, another
topic civilized people don't discuss at the dinner table, may be happy
to exchange views with you on the topic of faeces. I doubt you'll find
many other takers.
Bush II may talk about it with him. He used the word several
times in a recent speech about abortion, instead of the more
usual term, fetus.
Sorry, but that's a hoax. Snopes, which runs the Urban Legends Reference
Pages, is a reasonably reliable source on this sort of thing:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/fetal.asp
|
Yes, I do subscribe to Newsweek and I was taken in by this.
I don't remember seeing any kind of retraction in subsequent
issues either. I'll check their website and if necessary, send
them an email asking them to check their sources and clarify this
for their readership.
Thanks for this, Donna.
| Quote: | We know he's an idiot, but he's our idiot.
Yeah, well. For the time being.
Listen, this is purely a personal wish of mine, but as the election
nears, I really hope people can restrain themselves from filling this
newsgroup with "funny things the candidates were said to have said" and
political scandals and all that. I think it gets very tempting to do so
-- "look, it relates to language!" -- but it can get overwhelming.
|
I'll watch out that I don't succumb to that myself (too much ;)
Of course, I was paraphrasing the famous Bush I remark about his
refusal to go into Iraq after Saddam in 1991, "Yes, we know he's
an SOB, but he's our SOB". Such is the state of the US moral
compass.
--
dg (domain=ccwebster) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| |
FAQ
Memberlist
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in