[General] What is the meaning of 'stat'?

[Olympian]

Hello,

the following is from an article in nydailynews.com titled "Why do Miley Cyrus and sister Noah dress so inappropriately? Young stars are revealing too much"

The Cyruses – Miley and her younger sister Noah – are in a fashion emergency and need help. Stat.

​

What is the meaning of 'stat'?

Thank you

 

[lauralie2]

It means urgent. It's an acronym medical staff use.

 

[TheParser]

Hello,

the following is from an article in nydailynews.com titled "Why do Miley Cyrus and sister Noah dress so inappropriately? Young stars are revealing too much"

The Cyruses – Miley and her younger sister Noah – are in a fashion emergency and need help. Stat.

​

What is the meaning of 'stat'?

Thank you

********** NOT A TEACHER **********


Olympian,


I checked my dictionary. "Stat" comes from a Latin word

meaning "immediately."

At a hospital, for example, if there's an emergency, the medical

staff might yell, "Stat" -- meaning that help is needed right this

second.

I am an old man who could not care less who Miley and Noah are,

but apparently from the sentence they dress horribly, and they

need immediate help with choosing better clothing. Stat!!!

********** NOT A TEACHER **********

 

[Olympian]

Thank you lauralie2 and TheParser for your responses.

I had read 'pronto' in novels to mean 'at once/without delay' although I don't know if people really use that while speaking.

 

[Munch]

I don’t use it but some people do. I think most people would understand if they heard it.

 

[TheParser]

Thank you lauralie2 and TheParser for your responses.

I had read 'pronto' in novels to mean 'at once/without delay' although I don't know if people really use that while speaking.

********** NOT A TEACHER **********


Olympian,


"Pronto" is a Spanish word. Today there are many Spanish-

speaking people in the United States. If you said this word

to a Spanish-speaking server (waiter/waitress), for example,

s/he would probably be very offended. Here in the States,

we must be very careful with our words.

********** NOT A TEACHER **********

 

[BobK]

..."Stat" comes from a Latin word

meaning "immediately."..

:up: The full word's statim, but medical vocabulary was (and still is) often abbreviated. For example, if a doctor wants a pill to be taken daily, s/he writes 'pd' on the prescription (Latin 'per diem).

b

 

[riquecohen]

:up:For example, if a doctor wants a pill to be taken daily, s/he writes 'pd' on the prescription (Latin 'per diem).

b

In the US it is written "qd" (quaque die.)

 

[BobK]

In the US it is written "qd" (quaque die.)

Maybe this is not a Br/Am difference, but a reflection on the handwriting on the prescriptions I've seen. Quaque makes more sense than per. ;-)

b

 

[riquecohen]

Maybe this is not a Br/Am difference, but a reflection on the handwriting on the prescriptions I've seen. Quaque makes more sense than per. ;-)

b

Not surprising. Only yesterday I received a doctor's note explaining a student's absence. I was barely able to decipher the student's name, and the reason for the absence was totally illegible.

 

[Olympian]

********** NOT A TEACHER **********


Olympian,


"Pronto" is a Spanish word. Today there are many Spanish-

speaking people in the United States. If you said this word

to a Spanish-speaking server (waiter/waitress), for example,

s/he would probably be very offended. Here in the States,

we must be very careful with our words.

********** NOT A TEACHER **********

@TheParser, thank you for your response.

Good to know that use of this word may be offensive to Spanish-speaking servers. It appears to me that even though the US has a relatively short history (compared to other nations), a lot of complex social changes have taken place in this short time. It is difficult for someone living outside the US to understand/know that regular words have acquired offensive meanings in the US. I am referring to the so-called "N-word". And now I learn that "pronto" can be offensive.

 

[TheParser]

@TheParser, thank you for your response.

Good to know that use of this word may be offensive to Spanish-speaking servers. It appears to me that even though the US has a relatively short history (compared to other nations), a lot of complex social changes have taken place in this short time. It is difficult for someone living outside the US to understand/know that regular words have acquired offensive meanings in the US. I am referring to the so-called "N-word". And now I learn that "pronto" can be offensive.

********** NOT A TEACHER **********


Olympian,

Thank you for your kind note.

(1) Yes, the changes in American society have been astounding.

(2) I agree that English-language students in other countries

should also be taught cultural aspects of the United States before

they come here to visit, study, or live.

(3) One little word can make a big difference.

(a) For example, when I was young, people regularly

referred to "Orientals." Today that word is considered

offensive. The correct word is "Asian."

********** NOT A TEACHER **********

 

[Olympian]

Maybe this is not a Br/Am difference, but a reflection on the handwriting on the prescriptions I've seen. Quaque makes more sense than per. ;-)

b

Thank you BobK and riquecohen. I learned something new about prescriptions and medical terminology.
​

Not surprising. Only yesterday I received a doctor's note explaining a student's absence. I was barely able to decipher the student's name, and the reason for the absence was totally illegible. b

Doctors' handwriting is indecipherable the world over. :lol:
Here we get bogus certificates (written by a legit doctor or his staff) for a small consideration and people submit that in schools, colleges and even in work places. Sometimes there is a very small difference in a boy's and girl's name. For example - Gautam (as in Gautam Buddha) is a boy's name and Gautami is a girl's name. Once a college girl got a fake certificate on which the name was written as "Mr Gautam"!! The name was clearly written (obviously not the good doctor's handwriting). The girl had someone go to the clinic and pick up a fake one. They can't even write correct names on fake certificates. Really pathetic.​

 

[Olympian]

********** NOT A TEACHER **********


Olympian,

Thank you for your kind note.

(1) Yes, the changes in American society have been astounding.

(2) I agree that English-language students in other countries

should also be taught cultural aspects of the United States before

they come here to visit, study, or live.

(3) One little word can make a big difference.

(a) For example, when I was young, people regularly

referred to "Orientals." Today that word is considered

offensive. The correct word is "Asian."

********** NOT A TEACHER **********

TheParser, thank you for your response.

Indeed it would be good to educate people who go to the US to study or work. Unfortunately most people don't undergo any orientation before leaving here to go abroad (not just the US), and very few take it upon themselves to learn.

It would be good to have all such culturally sensitive/offensive words in one place. To someone living outside the US the use of "oriental" or "negro" being offensive is not easy to understand without context. Can such distorted meanings of otherwise regular descriptive words be termed as "perverted"? (I am asking this because I saw one meaning of the word "perverted" as:
"3. Marked by misinterpretation or distortion: a perverted translation of an epic poem.")


India is also incredibly diverse as the US is. But here, people don't "misuse" perfectly "OK" words to insult other people, they actually modify the word to indicate that they mean to use it insultingly.
You may already know it, but if not, to get an idea about India's diversity, here is an old PBS interview by David Gergen


By the way, I read somewhere that the word "Asian" includes "Indians" in the UK, but in the US the word "Asian" actually means "Southeast Asian people" (i.e. China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, HK, Indonesia, and probably Philippines, but not sure), but it does not include "Indians".

 

[TheParser]

Olympian,

Thank you for your kind note and the most interesting link.

I shall make this quick, for I fear that the moderators feel that we are getting far

a field from discussing "stat." They prefer that a thread stay devoted to one

point.

I shall beg their indulgence to just answer you briefly.

Yes, the word "Asian" is, indeed, interpreted differently in the States and in the

United Kingdom. I suspect that most Americans do not know this. And quite

possibly many British people don't, either.

I dare not test the patience of the moderators further. Have a nice day!!!

 

[Ouisch]

Who knows why some words/terms suddenly become offensive. Quite frankly, I've had a sneaking suspicison that the reasons it happens in AmE so frequently is because of the huge sums that are often awarded in lawsuits over "hate speech" and similar racial/ethnic slights.

In AmE, "Oriental" is not exactly a pejorative word, but it is considered to be insensitive/obsolete when describing a person from East Asia. (Only "things" like rugs or artwork are properly described as "Oriental.") As far as natives of the Philippines, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, etc, we are encouraged to refer to them as "Pacific Islanders." Until very recently, it was common parlance to refer to Mexican Americans, Cubans, Venezuelans, etc as "Hispanic," but now that term is reserved strictly for natives of Spain. Natives of Mexico, Central American or South American nations preferred to be called "Latino" (or "Latina" if female).

Back to the original topic - the use of "stat" oustide of the medical community first became popular when the TV show Emergency! was originally on the air. It was a very popular show and it made us non-medicos privy to "hospital lingo"; at least once every episode a doctor ordered "IV of Ringer's lactate stat!" or "Stabilize patient and transport stat!"

 

[BobK]

Who knows why some words/terms suddenly become offensive. Quite frankly, I've had a sneaking suspicison that the reasons it happens in AmE so frequently is because of the huge sums that are often awarded in lawsuits over "hate speech" and similar racial/ethnic slights.


...

:up: Right on! Well put - I wouldn't have dared.;-)

 

[Munch]

Who knows why some words/terms suddenly become offensive. Quite frankly, I've had a sneaking suspicison that the reasons it happens in AmE so frequently is because of the huge sums that are often awarded in lawsuits over "hate speech" and similar racial/ethnic slights.

I am not so sure it is more common for words to become considered offensive in AmE than BrE. And the idea that people are just pretending to be offended so they can sue others seems like quite a stretch to me.

I think it is more likely that many of these borderline-offensive words, like negro and oriental, remind people of the past when attitudes to “negro” and “oriental” people were often very negative. They have negative connotations, so people try to avoid them, and use different words instead. However, I can understand why people for whom these words are completely neutral have trouble understanding why they might be considered offensive.

 

[SoothingDave]

It seems to me to be an assertion of power, a claim to self-definition. If you are a minority and have no power, then the "ruling" class (for lack of a better term) calls you what they will.

When you gain some power, you can demand that they change the language and call you by a new name. It is a nominal (in every sense) use of power, but it is a step in the development of ethnic groups in American, it seems.

The actual language, in and of itself can be arbitrary. It is the change that is the political point.

 

[birdeen's call]

And the idea that people are just pretending to be offended so they can sue others seems like quite a stretch to me.

I agree. People do hate other people sometimes, which can make words they use hate words. It really happens; it's not lawyers' invention. And it happens in many (all?) languages. I guess that since America has always been a mix of races and cultures many such things must have inevitably come to life and they must have influenced Americans' lives much more then it did in, say, Poland.

It was really difficult for me to understand when I first noticed this. You have to really watch your tongue in America, which is not the case in my country, at least not to that extent. I don't mean that we don't have hate words or racial slurs. We do but there's not as much resistance to it.

For example (and it's not a random one; people talk about it a lot here), anti-semitism is a real issue in Poland. The Polish word for a Jew ("Żyd") is used by many people as a slur. Even more, it's used as an insult toward people who are not Jews in some situations. Such is the power of hate. And whereas in America such words become replaced by others, this Polish word hasn't. There is no other word for a Jew (except some 100% slurs). I wouldn't say it's a slur sensu stricto, but it's certainly used as one by many people. It would be impossible (I think, perhaps it happened) to sue someone for calling somebody "Żyd" though. How could anybody prove it was an insult? It very often isn't.

Also, there are not many Jews left in Poland after World War II. Most of those who hadn't been murdered emigrated. Anti-semitism remained but who's to fight it now? The interested aren't here. And new generations keep learning to hate Jews although they don't even get to see one usually.

Words are hateful when they express hate. The same word can be hateful to some and not hateful to others.