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There is a Latin phrase used in law that roughly translates into "you take the victim as he is." It pertains to situations such as when one person punches another in the face, not knowing that he has a brain aneurysm. The punch causes the rupture of the aneurysm, and the victim dies. The agressor pleads that it was an accident but is still charged with manslaughter on the grounds that he "takes the victim as he is." i.e. He is responsible for the death, and since he couldn't have known whether or not a single blow would kill the man, he should have refrained from hitting him in the first place.

Anyway, I can't think of the Latin legal term and I'm hoping someone here knows.

Also, what's the Latin medical term for a "sense of impending doom" such as experienced by a person in the throes of a heart atatck?


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Dear Alex: I haven't ever heard a term for a sense of impending doom,, and could not find one.
so I coined one; What would you say to :"aura mortis"?


#90679 12/31/02 08:44 PM
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I can't say I've ever come across a Latin equivalent for the "Sense of Impending Doom" either, though it's always been on the paradigm list for heart attack, along with the "crushing chest pain" (sometimes called "elephant sitting on my chest"), drenching sweats, nausea, and radiation to left shoulder and/or arm.

It seems anomalous, since all things medical seem to have a Latin name (unless it's a Greek one) from before we thought we had an understanding of what was going on . All we could do was describe it and give it a fancy name.

Conceivably that part of the syndrome wasn't recognized until the Twentieth Century, when we had stopped glorifying Classical language so. Perhaps also it became more prevalent, as people were now indulging in industrial-strength smoking and overeating to the point of getting high cholesterols and diabetes on such a large scale for the first time. [All diseases of affluence and longevity (among other causes, of course) unfortunately...]


#90680 01/01/03 04:30 PM
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I found the "impending doom" term I was looking for in my ACLS manual: angor animi. I'm not sure what the literal translation of that is and would love to hear it.

Another interesting thing about heart attacks: as far as I know, the only gesture recognized as a clinical sign is the clenched fist over the sternum that people tend to display while describing their chest pain, which is named Levine's sign. If you ever enjoyed perusing a dictionary, pick up a medical dictionary and look up "sign" and you'll find all sorts of interesting entries.




#90681 01/01/03 04:43 PM
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From http://members.tripod.com/~S_Larson/latindict/LatinDict_A.html (beware of pop up windows),

angor -oris, m. compression of the throat, suffocation; of the mind, distress, anguish, trouble.

animus -i, m. the spiritual or rational principle of life in man. More specifically: (1) the seat of feeling, the heart; 'animi causa', for pleasure; loc. (or genit.) 'animi', at heart. (2) character, disposition; as a trait of character (esp. in plur.) courage, spirit, vivacity; also pride, arrogance. (3) the seat of the will, intention: 'habeo in animo', I am resolved. (4) the seat of thought, intellect, mind, memory, consciousness.

It seems like the expresion is also a sort of play on words, essentially meaning "distress for your life" as well as "anguish at heart."


#90682 01/01/03 08:28 PM
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Well, how about abolesco fucit?

- Pfranz

#90683 01/01/03 09:15 PM
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Dear Capfka: abolesco fucit????? I found a German Latin glossary that says "abolesco" =
verschwinden, = disappear. But I could find nothing for "fucit" except as variant of "f-wird"


#90684 01/01/03 09:31 PM
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I agree, Dr. Bill. I show fuco, -are, -avi, -atum, to dye red.

Closest to fucit would be 3rd person singular present indicative fucat or 3rd person singular present subjunctive fucet. The onliest f-word I know would be futuit in the 3rd person sing. present indic. Mebbe he meant to say, "I'm outta here if he's going to paint the town red."


#90685 01/01/03 11:17 PM
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Damn, I left the "k" out, didn't I? Fuckit, Fuckit, Fuckit!

- Pfranz

#90686 01/01/03 11:28 PM
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Bill, find yourself a better dictionary, preferably Latin-English.

Abolesco means "to die" in the sense of "to fade away" or "to decay", "to cease to exist" or "to become extinct". That being the case, it would seem that it only means "to disappear" in a transitive sense alluding back to the outcome of the actual meaning of "death".

- Pfranz

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