Talk:English disease

RFV discussion: January 2016–January 2017

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English disease

Rfv-senses

This is a tricky one. I can find quite a lot of citations along the lines of "The French used to call sweating sickness "the English disease"", but these aren't much good for our purposes. Not only is it a mention rather than a use, it's just a translation of a foreign language term rather than an English one (it would be like if we had an entry for "bottom of the bag" meaning cul-de-sac). I've collected a lot of citations at Citations:English disease, but quite a few still need bulking up. Smurrayinchester (talk) 10:04, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

(There are also some senses - syphilis especially - which can be cited, but only from historical fiction that uses the term anachronistically. An Englishman wouldn't call syphilis the English disease, they'd call it the French disease, but quite a few 21st century authors seem to have made that mistake. I suppose that still counts for RFV purposes, but it's strange) Smurrayinchester (talk) 12:00, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

• This is hard as hell, and I don't want to close it, because I'm sure those senses are real, just hard to find. @Kiwima or @Equinox or somebody, help! —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 01:57, 28 August 2016 (UTC)

• Considering this RFV is asking for 3 cites for each of 15 senses (i.e. 45 cites minimum) I think we've done pretty well. It'll live on, on the talk page, anyway. Equinox ◑ 02:07, 28 August 2016 (UTC)

• I have bulked the citations page out. Now each sense has at least the required three cites. It is up to others to decide if any of them are too mention-y. Kiwima (talk) 20:46, 28 August 2016 (UTC)

I wonder if we can say which particular senses were calqued from which language? DTLHS (talk) 19:55, 28 August 2016 (UTC)

In Dutch, Engelse ziekte refers to the habit of writing compound words with a space between the parts, which is normal for English but not for Dutch. Would this sense perhaps have bled over into English as well? —CodeCat 20:54, 28 August 2016 (UTC)

• Closed, thanks User:Kiwima. Smurrayinchester (talk) 13:54, 9 January 2017 (UTC)

Senses, times, users and uses

We don't give any information, except indirectly and incompletely on the citations page, of where, when, and by whom these different senses were used. I have never heard an English speaker use the phrase in-person. When I have read or seen it used in media, it has always been with an explanation, except, perhaps, where it was used as a euphemism. It would be good to have earliest recorded uses of each sense, and out-dated, obsolete or archaic markers (or whatever we use) where appropriate. Rich Farmbrough, 20:32, 11 June 2024 (UTC).