One of the spellingbee words. Patients in OPD amused us by saying "yellow jaundice".
Actually there can be bile retention with bluish tint. I saw a dany case in a Chinese
restaurant in 1947. He had "doigts en baguettes de tambour", and was bluish green, not
yellow. I think it was a combination of jaundice and methemoglobinemia.
Incidentally, the restaurant across the street was named Hung Far Low. Honest.
But what puzzles me is I can't see any association of "icteric" with the color yellow.
Jaundice is easy, French "jaune" is yellow. But what color clue resides in "icteric"
The only thing I could find on Onelook was that "icteric" came from the Greek "ikteros" meaning simply "jaundice." I googled "ikteros" and read a few hits, but, again, only read that "ikteros" was Greek for "jaundice." Apparently it's used to mean "yellow" in some avian species.
Per my Greek dictionary, ikteros is the name of a bird of a yellowish green colour by looking at which a jaundiced person was cured; the bird died! Related words (ikteriau, ikterikos) have meanings related to jaundice but ikterias means a yellowish kind of stone.
Any connection between the "ic" in "icteric" and the "ic" in "rictus"? Probably not, but thought I'd ask.
whoops doubled up, sorry
Bingley
According to the Liddle and Scott entry on ikteros (
http:// makeashorterlink.com/?A25E217A2) Pliny the Elder identifies the ikteros with the bird we now as the golden oriole.
Bingley
Even closer might be the word for seizure, which is "ictus". Any connection found?
And exploiting my famous looseness of association: icterus ==> ictus ==> seizure ==> seize the moment ==> carpe diem ("Seize the day!") ==> carpals are wristbones ==> ==> is that because we use the wrist to seize objects with? (well, sort of, by exension, almost, maybe)
use the wrist to seize objects with?
You use your wrists? You might find that fingers work a little better.
Carpal traces back through Greek karpos, wrist, to IE kwerp-. No mention of carpere.
Bingley,
I couldn't get your link to come up.
I got the impression from reading about ikteros on Google that ikteros = jaundice, not that ikteros = yellow.
ikteros = jaundice, not that ikteros = yellow
Hey! Jaundice = yellow
But does jaundice = yellow, purely and wholly, or does jaundice = yellow from sickness?
In other words, would we be correct in using jaundice strictly as a color?
New Spring Line from Channel: That Little Jaundice Dress
Yikes!
Per AHD:
Middle English jaundis, jaunis, from Old French jaunice, yellowness, jaundice, from jaune, jalne, yellow, from Latin galbinus, yellowish.
Thank you, Faldage.
Jaundiced journalism has a striking ring to it, doesn't it?
isn't it a bit more chartreuse?
a bit more chartreuse?
Depends. Yellow chartreuse or green chartreuse?
You can get yellow jaundice from drinking too much Chartreuse. Cheaper to go Gallo.
Y'all're a hoot.
And WW, is that Channel or Chanel?
In reply to:
And WW, is that Channel or Chanel?
You're not an editor for nuthin'!
a long-dead relative once sent me the wrong music as a gag...
yep, I was channeled a chart ruse...
In reply to:
I got the impression from reading about ikteros on Google that ikteros = jaundice, not that ikteros = yellow.
Yes, it does mean jaundice. As Faldage said, it is also the name of a bird, the sight of which was supposed to cure jaundice. I was adding for the benefit of the ornithologically curious that the bird in question is the golden oriole.
Bingley
So if you complained to a iatros about ikteros, he gave you the bird.And a "golden oriole"
is "golden gold"
oriole - 1776, from Fr. oriol, from L. aureolus "golden,"
from I.E. *aus- "gold."