The French language is evolving at breakneck speed. Each week, our language advisor dissects the words and expressions that make the headlines or give us trouble.
Posted at 6:00 p.m.
Two years of pandemic have brought into everyday language a number of more or less specialized terms and, sometimes also, more or less well used.
It is interesting to note in this regard that we have a Dictionary of medical French difficultiesvery useful especially for correcting certain vocabulary errors, written by Dr.r Serge Quérin, Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Montreal.
We will read, for example, that the term fan is erroneously used to designate a respirator. The error is very common. The corresponding name in English is “ventilator”. Moreover, it is correctly said that a patient is subjected to artificial ventilation. For patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19, a ventilator offers a better chance of survival.
Journalists also used the word serum as a synonym of vaccine. It’s not the same thing. The serum already contains antibodies, the vaccine allows the body to produce them. We should instead choose words like product Where substance to avoid repetitions.
The words isolation and insulation were also confused. That’s the word isolation which is appropriate to designate the situation of a patient who is isolated. Isolation of the contagious. It is also the one that is used as a synonym for solitude. Breaking the social isolation of the elderly. In French, the word insulation is used well to designate the “action of protecting a room against heat, cold, noise”.
We have also seen the word a lot coverto which, in writing, we prefer the names shirt Where blouseaccording to the context. Shivering in his too-short hospital gown. Doctors feared a shortage of protective gowns. The name blouse is also the one we should prefer to lab coat. Doctors and pharmacists wear a white coat, a (laboratory) coat.
Other kinds of difficulties still arise in writing. We write thus unvaccinated peoplewithout a hyphen, when not vaccinated is adjective, but the number of unvaccinated with a hyphen when used as a noun. We also write make a diagnosiscorn a diagnostic test.
Test positive?
I wonder if the expression “he tested positive” is correct. Would it be more accurate to say that a person’s test result is positive?
Response
The expression “test positive” or “(to be) tested positive” are English forms that should be avoided. Nor will we write that a patient has been “tested positive”. But we can very well say that his test result for COVID-19 is positive.
We can also make a shortcut and say (by metonymy) that the person himself is positive, has been declared positive. We can also say that a person had a positive test. Steps to take after testing positive for coronavirus.