posted
I'm working with a man from the UK and I'm having a bit of an issue with what I can only assume is a dialect/vocabulary/culture issue.
This man and his family recently visited Hawaii and became ill while here. I am investigating his case and have been communicating with him by email only. I have had no face-to-face meetings or phone calls with him. I asked him to list his symptoms, and he listed the following:
quote: Stomach cramps, slight nausea, followed by sickness and diarrhea
So, "sickness" is not very specific to me, so I requested clarification.
quote: When you say you suffered from “sickness and diarrhea”, do you mean vomiting? Or more of a general malaise?
He replied thusly:
quote: when I refer to sickness I mean actually retching with the loss of stomach content through the mouth
Well, that's pretty much the definition of vomiting, isn't it? I'm pretty sure I know what happened and am well on my way to closing out his case, but I'm wondering what the issue is here.
Is this fellow just squeamish about the word "vomit"? He didn't have a problem with "diarrhea" so that seems odd. Or do folks from the UK use "sickness" the way we use "vomiting" in the US?
Again, at this point, I'm more curious than anything else, and was hoping Hatrack could help me out.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
I've also heard it used as a noun sometimes, as in "There is cat sick on the carpet, please clean it up."
Possibly he saw that there was some confusion and wanted to give as technical a description as possible in case he used another noun you weren't familiar with or that you meant something different by "vomit."
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Brit talk clarification: to be sick, usually means to throw up. if you 'are sick,' it means to puke.
exa: 'The cat's been sick on the carpet' means the cat threw up on the carpet.
In addition 'sick' is also used to describe vomit.
exa:
Moon: 'We dont need to listen to the words of the journalists' Vince: 'Well, thats good, 'coz theres no words in this one. Just a picture of some sick with our names underneath it'
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Maui, in the second exchange, I think he's pulling your chain a little bit. Your asking for clarification of the word sick, by asking about the (to British ears) technical term for the same thing, and British people respond this way sometimes by going over what you say and being even *more* technical to have you on. I wouldn't worry about it- you got the definitions right. Sick and "to be sick" are terms for vomit in the UK.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
I've heard a lot in this job... more euphemisms for vomit and diarrhea than I can count. But usually when folks are describing their symptoms, they'll either be extremely clinical about everything, or very vague about everything. I figured that there was a vocabulary thing here.
This is fascinating to me. Thank you for all of your responses.
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posted
Yes, 'being sick' or 'sickness' is definitely the same thing as throwing up.
If it's flu or a bad cold more likely you'd say 'I'm ill' or 'I'm unwell'. But if someone says something like 'I've just been ill all over the floor' that means they've vomited.
'Sick' is also a noun for vomit. As in 'I'm not touching that, it's got sick on it'.
If you're taking the day off - when you call in sick and you're really just skiving - that would be 'throwing a sickie'.
I think the word 'vomit' is often seen as a rather nasty technical term - a bit coldly formal and overly descriptive, somehow. But as Orinoco said, there's no reason not to use the word when asked to clarify.
There really are only a very few words with different meanings between American English and British English, but they can be so confusing if you're not expecting them.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Your asking for clarification of the word sick, by asking about the (to British ears) technical term for the same thing, and British people respond this way sometimes by going over what you say and being even *more* technical to have you on.
is what's going on.
Some Brits like to feel superior about us not "talking right" sometimes.
Personally I'd send back an overly polite e-mail explaining that "sick" in America means "generally ill" and that you needed specifics. He'll either laugh at your American-ness, or have the good grace to be a bit ashamed of himself.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote: Some Brits like to feel superior about us not "talking right" sometimes.
You mean 'speaking correctly'.
I don't know why some people do that (along with correcting American spelling). I think it's probably a combination of ignorance and insecurity.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
I'd say it's mostly insecurity, as well as a remnant of a colonial history. If you want to go even deeper than that, British culture maintains remnants of French philosophy (as do we in America) and attitudes towards nobility and high birth that are very closely connected with the way people speak. Somewhat unlike America, even the language that people speak, such as the French that the English royalty spoke until recent times, remains a key aspect of their social position. The ascendancy of English as a uniting language in medieval England is not dissimilar to the ascendancy of English as an international language today. British people sometimes neglect their own history, and forget that their "received" language has actually changed more in recent times than colonial variations have, and that to start with, English is an amalgamation of languages adopted in order to facilitate wide ranges of use- and this is why there remains such a continuum of dialects in the UK to this day. Any English person that scoffs at an American spelling or a usage variation is just being very petty- but to an extent, English people also feel very strongly about some very petty things, and there are some interesting reasons why that is.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: Any English person that scoffs at an American spelling or a usage variation is just being very petty- but to an extent, English people also feel very strongly about some very petty things, and there are some interesting reasons why that is.
I don't think that British people are unique in that.
Once again, Mahalo plenty for your input. I learned something new today.
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