Comments on: Good Juju

By: Charles Vigneron

Charles Vigneron — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 21:07:01 +0000

I agree with Carrie. I’ve had a doctor appointment, a dentist appointment. Getting others to subscribe to this usage, is to me, fool errand.

By: ToddL

ToddL — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 03:19:43 +0000

The discussion of pointing to your elbow as a sign for water, indicating that the people ordering it are cheap, made me think of the sign language sign for poor. To sign poor, you squeeze or rub your elbow. I'm sure this is probably completely coincidental, but it's a fun connection nonetheless. Link

By: Carrie Pruhs

Carrie Pruhs — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 20:35:30 +0000

I have always been bewildered by “doctor’s appointment” as well, but for a different reason. I never understood why there is an apostrophe s in the first place – wouldn’t it just be, “I have a doctor appointment?”

By: Monte Letourneau

Monte Letourneau — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 21:42:06 +0000

Re: doc’s appointment -I think you hit on a clue when mentioning childhood.
My guess is that it is sort of pre-literate, or lower class, usage that never changed.
Long ago only a very few very literate would have had a meeting with a Lawyer or Accountant, and would not want to refer to it as the other’s appointment. Grammer that is thought out or formal would also tend to preclude the idea of ownership of an appointment by the service provider.
There is also the difference in the relationship, you may pay doctors and lawyers, and you may follow their recommendations, but only a health professional gives one orders, as if they were the boss. Hence, it’s OK for the doc to own the meeting, but the Lawyer appointment definately belongs to the client.
I feel that either of these possibilities looks towards pre-literate usage, either as childhood habit, or educational progression historically.
It would be nice to know when it entered written use.