Saturday & Sunday Word: Crepitus & Avoirdupois

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

The first word comes from a recent class I took on emergency rescue.

The second came from a friend, whose aware of my wordsmithing, and takes great joy in ferreting out and fetching back potential candidates from their own reading -- in this case a charming & inspiring book titled: The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less

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crep·i·tus (ˈkrɛpɪtəs):
origin: (1815–25) Latin, crepo= to rattle

noun
1. The sound (or sensation) of bone grinding against bone.
→this may be heard when a bone is broken or in cases of severe arthritis (as the cartilage normally surrounding joints is systematically destroyed within the body)
2. A noisy discharge of gas from the anus.
→also associated with gas gangrene



av·oir·du·pois (ˌæv ər dəˈpɔɪz):
origin: (15th Century) Middle English, avoir de pois= goods sold by weight; from Anglo-French, literally- "goods of weight"

noun
Heaviness or (informally) bodily weight.
→ex: "The stone was not one of the avoirdupois units in Medieval France."

Or perhaps you'd be curious to see your avoirdupois worth in gold?

Comments

[med_cat]

Crepitus is also mentioned as a symptom of subcutaneous emphysema, when there's subcutaneous air, for example, if your patient has pulled out the chest tube, and you palpate around the area, and you hear the sound similar to Rice Crispies crunch as you press on the skin... ;)

Didn't know abt the #2 definition of crepitus you list...

And avoirdupois is such a neat word, isn't it? From the same category as embonpoint ;)