In most cases we do not know who first coined or even used a word. Evidence can generally be found of the earliest instance of a word in written texts, […]
Jeff Aronson’s Words
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Of labels and licences
The earliest citation of the term “off-label” in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1987 (Table 1). But I looked for other instances, suspecting earlier uses. Table 1. Biomedical words […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . N-of-1 studies and adverse drug reactions
Lovastatin is one of the words whose earliest citations in the Oxford English Dictionary are from 1986 (Table 1). Table 1. Biomedical words (n=17) in the OED for which the […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Fertile philology
I have now reached 1985 in my survey of words whose first citations listed in the Oxford English Dictionary are from years spanning my 50 years as a physician. Four […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Medical light sabres
The treatment known as photopheresis, or extracorporeal photopheresis, was first described by RL Edelson in 1984, which explains its appearance in this week’s list of words that are cited in […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Syndromes
One word stands out from those listed in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as having been first recorded in 1983 (Table 1): Rett [syndrome], an X-linked disorder, with slow development, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . How many waves make an epidemic?
Dictionaries not uncommonly include abridged versions of words and phrases. The abridged biomedical words in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) listed as being first cited in the 1970s are given […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Viruses
In reviewing words that have been first recorded in the 50 years since I qualified as a doctor, I have noticed how frequently names of viruses have appeared, rather like […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Marijuana in 1980 and the influence of the 60s
“Sexual intercourse”, wrote Philip Larkin in his poem Annus Mirabilis, “began / In nineteen sixty-three / (which was rather late for me) — / Between the end of the ‘Chatterley’ […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Medical words of the 1970s
During the final weeks of 2020 I explored biomedical words that were labelled in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as having first appeared in print in the years from 1970 […]