If you’re on tenterhooks, it means you’re in a state of anxious anticipation or suspense. But what IS a tenterhook? The answer goes back to a 15th-century manufacturing process. Also, you probably have a term for those crumbs that...
The medical term for that grainy stuff that collects in the corner of your eyes when you sleep is rheum, but why call it that when you could call it sleepy sand or eye boogers? This is part of a complete episode.
Vaccines take their name from vaccinia, the virus that caused cowpox. It was the original ingredient used to vaccinate people against smallpox. Stefan Riedel, a pathologist at the Baylor University Medical Center, offers a detailed history of the...
What does it mean to gronk the data? A listener from the medical device business wonders about the techie word “gronk,” which first popped up in Robert Heinlein’s 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land. Grant also mentions Jeff...
A medical transcriptionist who majored in English reports that her co-workers are squabbling over a sentence: “The patient was brought to the operating room, and laid supine on the operating-room table.” This is part of a complete...
In medical terminology, the abbreviation GTTS means “drops” or “drips.” But why? This is part of a complete episode.