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Ethics & Behavior
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Medical Slang in British Hospitals
Adam T. Fox; Michael Fertleman; Pauline Cahill; Roger D. PalmerOnline publication date: 08 January 2010
To cite this Article
Fox, Adam T. , Fertleman, Michael , Cahill, Pauline and Palmer, Roger D.(2003) 'Medical Slang inBritish Hospitals', Ethics & Behavior, 13: 2, 173 — 189
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ETHICS & BEHAVIOR,
13
(2), 173–189Copyright © 2003, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Medical Slang in British Hospitals
Adam T. Fox
St. Mary’s Hospital London, United Kingdom
Michael Fertleman
University College Hospital London, United Kingdom
Pauline Cahill
St. George’s Hospital Medical School London, United Kingdom
Roger D. Palmer
Addenbrooke’s Hospital Cambridge, United Kingdom
The usage, derivation, and psychological, ethical, and legal aspects of slang termi-nology in medicine are discussed. The colloquial vocabulary is further described and a comprehensive glossary of common UK terms provided in the appendix. Thisforms the first list of slang terms currently in use throughout the British medicalestablishment.Key words: communication slang, terminology, medicolegal, accountability
“Within a given culture there is a shared language” (Argyle, 1967). Many profes-sions speak a secret language, often indecipherable to outsiders. Medicine is noexception to this. Scientific jargon and acronyms are an everincreasing part of a physicians’everyday language (Isaacs & Fitzgerald, 2000). Despite this, there
Requests for reprints should be sent to Adam T. Fox, 48 Lansdowne Road, Stanmore, MiddlesexHA7 2SA, United Kingdom. E-mail: adam.fox2@virgin.net
D o w nl o ad ed B y : [ U ni v e r si t y of Y o rk] A t : 21 :06 19 J u n e 2010
isyet another vocabulary, one that has not been formalized in any medical text, journal, or dictionary, yet it is almost universally understood by medical studentsand junior physicians. This is the medical form of slang, a term synonymous withtechnospeak, colloquialism, and vulgarism (Kirkpatrick, 1998).
Slang
is defined in different ways, such as “words or phrases, or particular meanings of these, thatare common in informal use, but are generally considered not to form part of stan-dard English, and often used deliberately for novelty or unconventionality”(Sykes, 1983). Perhaps unkindly, it is also defined as “the special vocabulary used by any set of persons of a low or disreputable character” (Onions, 1985).Medical slang has a growing vocabulary, yet its use in Britain remains mostlyundocumented and overlooked by mainstream medical literature. The authors,over a period of years, have collected nearly 200 slang terms in use in British hos- pitals and present these in the appendix. Although often distasteful and deroga-tory, slang serves a purpose. Consequently, offense can be experienced by patients, health care professionals, and physicians alike. Many are unaware of itsferocity, and, in producing a comprehensive dictionary of terms, the authors in-tend no ill feeling: The terms do not represent their views, but merely reflect thereality of hospital medicine.
THE ORIGINS OF MEDICAL SLANGWho Uses Slang?
Coombs, Chopra, Schenk, and Yutan (1993) surveyed American physicians at var-ious stages of their careers regarding their familiarity with medical slang. Theydiscovered that slang is learned in the clinical setting and was therefore uncom-mon until the third year of medical school, when its use increased. Usage contin-ued to increase during later medical student years and peaked during internshipyear, when the hours are longest and responsibilities are extensive. Thereafter, usedeclined over the subsequent 5 years, and, by 20 years of practice, knowledge of medical slang terms is only slightly greater than that of the naïve preclinical med-ical student. Perhaps this represents advancement in terminology, as social lan-guage has changed through the decades, or perhaps simply maturity in clinical practice.Medical students do not appear to embrace the coarseness of medical slangfreely (Parsons, Kinsman, Bosk, Sankar, & Ubel, 2001), and, although identifyingwith the physician’s frustration and disappointments, they also identify and em- pathize with the patient. Consequently, there is a conflict in using slang, althoughthis is not to state that the physician does not sympathize nor empathize with their patient. Perhaps distanced from responsibility, initially, they reluctantly start usingslang to be sociable, until it becomes more freely and readily used.
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