a flu by any other name

[gustavolacerda]

Mexican flu, swine flu, H1N1, hiney, the 2009 flu pandemic, the "A" flu (romance languages)

What does it about something say if people can't settle on a name?

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_flu_pandemic

Comments

[bhudson]

What does it about something say if people can't settle on a name?

It's very old and names have diverged in the intervening millenia, or it was discovered independently by different groups who coined unrelated terms for it.

[glapaloopscap]

Or it makes people nervous, so they make up euphemisms for it. How many euphemisms are there for sex or death?

[jcreed]

bhudson++

[bhudson]

My mother was a linguist and my father smelt of elderberries.

[gustavolacerda]

I correctly guessed that this was from Monty Python!

Nonsense comedy tends to be baffling, and I think that's exactly the point.

[stepleton]

In the case of swine flu, it also means a robust pork lobby.

[bhudson]

There was variance in names even before the pork lobby got involved though.

[stepleton]

Good. Now was there more or less of it?