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What was the original 'ambulance'?

Words Unravelled

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Rob and Jess are taking a surgical look at words from the world of medicine.
💊 What is the Nocebo Effect?
🩺 Are doctors named after leeches (or the other way round)?
🚑 What does "ambulance" literally mean?
These questions answered, and many more, in another wordy nerdy episode of Words Unravelled.

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==LINKS==
Rob's YouTube channel: robwords
Jess' Useless Etymology blog: https://uselessetymology.com/
Rob on X: x.com/robwordsyt
Jess on TikTok: tiktok.com/@jesszafarris

#etymology #wordfacts #English

20 Comments

@WordsUnravelled Creator 8 months ago Pinned

Hit us with your favourite medical jargon. And remember: you can get 5% off across the Autonomous website with our code WU5OFF, including on the ErgoChair Pro, which you can find here: https://www.autonomous.ai/office-chairs/ergonomic-chair?utm_source=pr&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=growth&utm_content=YouTube&utm_term=WU5OFF

@Brandyalla 8 months ago

The cutesy phrase I've heard to explain the difference between poison and venom is, "If it bites you and you die it was venom. If you bite it and you die it was poison."

@Panthror 8 months ago

I find the music of the band Placebo very pleasing, so that makes sense. But they'll never have the same effect as The Cure.

@lakelandbaptist 8 months ago (edited)

Jess: "We also have chlamydia."
Rob:"We do."
Me: 🤣
39:27

@GregorThomson1138 8 months ago

A big difference between a Barber-Surgeon and a Physician is you would go to the Physician for an illness but would go to the Barber-Surgeon for an injury (a Physician will give you medicine, a Barber-Surgeon will treat your wounds).

@kristinebjorklund982 8 months ago

I was the kid who read the dictionary for fun--but only if it had word derivations. Your facts are interesting in and of themselves, but your presentation makes me laugh as much as the two of you do. With all the contention, pain, and sadness on the internet, you give joy. Thanks.

@g8xft 8 months ago

Interesting way of preventing confusion: Guy’s hospital has the neurology and urology departments next to each other - prevents them being misheard.

Of course, we know that neurologists get on your nerves while urologists just piss you off.

@Sff303 8 months ago

Foreign accent syndrome doesn’t actually make you talk in another accent. It is a motor defect so that you can’t make the sounds of your accent and end up sounding like a foreign accent

@EumenesOCardia 8 months ago

Concerning Opioid; opioid refers to all drugs that interact with opioid receptors like opium does, whereas opiate refers specifically to the actual alkalies found in opium.

@eeshtarr 8 months ago (edited)

I hadn't realized 'herpes' is related to 'herpetology' (the study of "creeping animals")

@andyhurley3852 8 months ago

The way I heard the foreign accent syndrome explained is that it is not actually a foreign accent but a speech impediment that just sounds like a foreign accent so not actually the accent of any particular foreign language.

@adrian7583 8 months ago

Placebo and Placate sharing a common root makes perfect sense!

@aloluk 8 months ago

Tell a gardener with a lawn that scarify isn't used any more. It's scratching the ground to make holes for drainage and scraping the dead grass up.

@Lee-ot2uk 8 months ago

Scarifier is still used today. Lawns, for instance, are scarified to remove moss...

@jeffanderson8678 8 months ago

At age 65 I've always tried never to go to the doctor unless all else failed, but I highly recommend watching this, and every episode, of Words unravelled. Thanks so much for the insight and humor you always bring me.

@dw7704 8 months ago

Pantophobia- the fear of everything, including pants.

@skybluskyblueify 8 months ago

Tuberculosis was a condition with tubercles in the lungs or swellings, mostly in the lungs, as your body tries to wall-off the bacteria. Historically when the investigators/doctors would check to see what killed the person they would find small swellings all throughout the lungs and other organs.

@origamidennis 8 months ago

The root for nocebo is also found in the word nociceptor which is a nerve ending that detects harm (heat, pressure etc.) and initiates feelings of pain.

@TheodoreWeiser 8 months ago

"Avoid the Clap"- Jimmy Dugan

That's good advice!!

@boraxmacconachie7082 8 months ago

30:00 How foreign accent syndrome works: I remember hearing about this years ago and having exactly the same questions about it as you guys, and a relative with a medical degree explained to me that people don't wake up with a real foreign accent from a real place: it's just that the speech centre of the brain is damaged and they have difficulty pronouncing certain sounds. The resulting changes to their speech sound superficially like an unidentified foreign accent