It means 'sharp' and reflects the ancient observation that nasty,
sharp pains tend to be of shorter duration than long term 'chronic'
pain - from chronos - time. Thus we have opposites in chronic and
acute that really aren't opposite in that they apply to quite
different scenarios. The commonly received meaning is that chronic is
of long duration and requires maintenance while acute is more
immediate and serious - although not necessarily of sudden onset
(i.e. a second heart attack - the problem is chronic, the condition
acute). Where I orginally came from people would say that they were
feeling 'a bit chronic' but I was far to acute to make that mistake.
Hand in yer badge.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 25/02/2007, at 1:03 PM, Walt Wayman wrote:
> Being a charter and armed member of the Language Police, I get
> annoyed at people's misuse of the term "acute." It doesn't always
> mean "really bad," like some seem to think, and which it can mean.
> It mainly is just the term for something that had a sudden onset.
>
> Walt
>
>
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