Feest Isolation Days – 29 April
The weather has changed. No more sun filled breakfasts in the garden for awhile. Instead, cooler weather means jumpers are back on and shoes are worn with socks. Jumpers. Until I moved to England, these warm knitted things used to be called sweaters. Why jumper? In America a jumper is a dress that you wear on top of a blouse or sweater. On a cool coronavirus filled day it seemed the right time to see if I might find out.
A “jumper” possibly derives from the word for a man’s short coat, or a women’s underbodice in the 1800’s. However, there doesn’t seem to be any real agreement on its origin. Well that cleared that up then! A sweater, however, was the name given to a woollen top garment because it was something worn that would make the wearer sweat. The term “Sweater girl” began in Hollywood in the 1940s and Lana Turner was the first star given the sobriquet after her 1937 film They Won’t Forget, when she wore a tight sweater over her ample bust. She must also have made a few men sweat…she was married eight times.
Thinking about the origin of words, I thought I’d look up a few more that are currently part of our new vernacular.
Lockdown. A “Lock” is a Germanic word for a fastening mechanism, or can also refer to a space enclosed by such a device, which explains its use as a barrier in a canal. To “lock in” or to “lock up” originates from the 15th and 16th Century. Lockdown, didn’t become used until the 1970s. It became the term used to describe the confinement of inmates or people in psychiatric hospitals. With half the world under lockdown, it will be interesting to see what future historians have to say about this word and when it really entered mainstream usage.
Social distancing Social distancing measures date back to at least the fifth century. “Lepers shall dwell alone” according to the Book of Leviticus in the Bible. During the flu pandemic in 1918, schools in some parts of America were closed, public gatherings were banned and other measures to keep people away from each other were implemented. In Philadelphia, however, the city fathers allowed a mass parade, didn’t institute any form of distancing and the fatality rates soared. Just wait for the current figures to come out of those American States where they prefer to exercise their “right” to congregate rather than practice keeping a social distance.
The World Health Organisation would prefer if we used the term Physical Distancing because one thing we are NOT doing is social distancing! Zoom, What’s App, phone calls, emails, all of these methods are being used regularly to keep in social contact.
The term social distancing was first used in the early 2000s by the New York Times when a writer suggested it was the “more politically correct way of saying quarantine.”
I wonder if the author was wearing a sweater or a jumper when he/she wrote that!
Coronavirus: This pathogen got its name due to the spiky crown (or corona in Latin) that you can see on its surface. Covid19 officially is the disease this latest coronavirus causes.
(Following Quoted verbatim from the WHO website as it was so well written and clear)
Viruses, and the diseases they cause, often have different names. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. People often know the name of a disease, but not the name of the virus that causes it.
Viruses are named based on their genetic structure to facilitate the development of diagnostic tests, vaccines and medicines. Virologists and the wider scientific community do this work, so viruses are named by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).
Diseases are named to enable discussion on disease prevention, spread, transmissibility, severity and treatment. Human disease preparedness and response is WHO’s role, so diseases are officially named by WHO in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
ICTV announced “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)” as the name of the new virus on 11 February 2020. This name was chosen because the virus is genetically related to the coronavirus responsible for the SARS outbreak of 2003. While related, the two viruses are different.
WHO announced “COVID-19” as the name of this new disease on 11 February 2020, having originally called it “2019 novel coronavirus”.
We won’t forget this pathogen soon will we?
Or the jokes that went with it….
A little light relief….
With love,
Kathy x