usage_labels

Explanatory Notes
for the Medical Dictionary
Usage

[Usage Labels] [Illustrations of Usage] [Usage Notes]
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USAGE LABELS
Three types of status labels are used in this dictionary--temporal, regional, and stylistic--to signal that a word or a sense of a word is restricted in usage.

The temporal label obsolete means that there is no evidence of use since 1755:

eryn.go . . . noun . . .obsolete : candied root of the sea holly made to be used as an aphrodisiac

The temporal label archaic means that a word or sense once in common use is found only rarely today:

embryo . . . noun . . . 1 archaic : a vertebrate at any stage of development prior to birth or hatching

The labels obsolete and archaic are comments on the word being defined. When a thing, as distinguished from the word used to designate it, is obsolete or outmoded with respect to some use or application or is part of a discredited theory or concept, appropriate orientation is usually given in the definition:

black bile noun : the one of the four humors of ancient and medieval physiology that was believed to be secreted by the kidneys and spleen and to cause melancholy

A word or sense limited in use to a specific region of the English-speaking world has an appropriate label. The adverb chiefly precedes a label when the word has some currency outside a specified region, and a double label is used to indicate currency in each of two specific regions:

red bug . . . noun, Southern & Midland

ap.pen.di.cec.to.my . . . noun, British

enzootic ataxia . . .noun, chiefly Australian

The stylistic label slang is used with words or senses that are especially appropriate in contexts of extreme informality, that usually have a currency not limited to a particular region or area of interest, and that are composed typically of shortened forms or extravagant or facetious figures of speech. Words with the label slang are entered if they have been or in the opinion of the editors are likely to be encountered in communicating with patients especially in emergencies. A few words from the huge informal argot of medicine are entered with the label medical slang because they have appeared in general context or have been the subject of discussion in medical journals:

ben.ny . . . noun . . . slang

go.mer . . . noun, medical slang

Subject orientation is generally given in the definition; however, a guide phrase is sometimes used to indicate a specific application of a word or sense:

¹drug . . . noun 1. . .b according to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act

erupt . . . intransitive verb 1 of a tooth

ILLUSTRATIONS OF USAGE
Definitions are sometimes followed by verbal illustrations that show a typical use of the word in context. These illustrations are enclosed in angle brackets, and the word being illustrated is shown in italic:

¹med.i.cal . . . adjective . . .2 . . . <the medical wards of a hospital>

ab.sorb . . . transitive verb . . . 1 . . . <surgical sutures which can be absorbed by the body>

Illustrative quotations are also used to show words in typical contexts:

²sub.li.mate . . .transitive verb 2 . . . <sexual passion was largely sublimated into intellectual passion--Havelock Ellis>

hospitalize . . . transitive verb . . .<the child was hospitalized at once for diagnosis and treatment --Journal of the American Medical Association>

USAGE NOTES
Definitions are sometimes followed by usage notes that give supplementary information about such matters as idiom, syntax, semantic relationship, and status. For trademarks and service marks, a usage note is used in place of a definition. A usage note is introduced by a lightface dash:

pill . . . noun . . . 2 . . . : . . . --usually used with the

¹purge . . . verb . . . transitive verb . . .transitive verb . . . 2 : ... --used of a liquid

bug . . . noun 1a : . . . --not used technically

hs abbreviation . . . --used esp. in writing prescriptions

Pro.zac . . . trademark --used for a preparation of fluoxetine

Sometimes a usage note calls attention to one or more terms with the same denotation as the main entry or to an abbreviation for it:

lep.ro.sy . . . noun . . . : a chronic disease caused by infection with an acid-fast bacillus of the genus Mycobacterium (M. leprae) ... --called also hansenosis, Hansen's disease, lepra

blood pressure noun : pressure exerted by the blood upon the . . . --abbreviation BP

The called-also terms are shown in italic type. If the called-also term falls alphabetically more than one entry away from the principal entry, it is entered in alphabetical sequence with the sole definition being a synonymous cross-reference to the entry where it appears in the usage note:

han.sen.osis . . . noun . . . : LEPROSY

Hansen's disease . . . noun . . . : LEPROSY

lep.ra . . . noun . . . : LEPROSY

Two or more usage notes are separated by a semicolon.

parathyroid hormone noun : a hormone of the parathyroid gland that . . . --abbreviation PTH; called also parathormone

[Usage Labels] [Illustrations of Usage] [Usage Notes]
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