Sore throats

Anne D.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Sore throats

Interested to know why "mal de gorge" wasn’t accepted?

 Incidentally there’s a very rare type of severe throat infection known as "Vincent’s angina" in English. I find from the internet that it’s named after a French epidemiologist with the magnificent name of Jean Hyacinthe Vincent. 

Asked 8 months ago
CélineNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Bonjour Anne,

That's an excellent point! You're correct that it is a correct answer. We've now added this answer to the options thanks to you.

Merci de votre contribution et bonne journée !

CécileNative French expert teacher in Kwiziq

Hi Anne, 

Just to go back on the word 'angine'.

It is used by medical practitioners to describe a severe throat infection affecting your tonsils ( amygdales ).

Take a look at the following page to see what the different sorts of 'angines' are -

https://www.ameli.fr/assure/sante/themes/angine/definition-symptomes-diagnostic#:~:text=Les%20deux%20grands%20types%20d,le%20plus%20souvent%20un%20streptocoque%20.

 

I used to suffer from these types of 'maladies' when I was young and remember telling the man who was to become my husband that " I had an angina " ( literal translation of "J'ai une angine") and he thought that I had a bad heart and angina!!!

The term 'angina' is 'angine de poitrine' in French and a totally different ailment.

Beware of literal translations when learning a language! 

Like using  'I have a bad heart' for the French 'j'ai mal au cœur ' which should be 'I feel sick'.

Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Cécile, 

Continuing the side discussion which is an interesting example of how language and word meanings change over time, and can have different technical and general usages.

In everyday and general medical usage nowadays ‘ angina ‘ ( unqualified )always refer to angina pectoris (in English usage) - that is cardiac-based ‘angina’.  It has a number of clinically recognised variants.

It is not the only condition  termed ‘ angina ‘ however, and was not the original ‘angina’ - first written clinical references in the 1500s of ‘ angina ‘ related to various severe throat diseases/infections, consistent with the Latin origin of the word. Angina (pectoris) was not named as such until more than 150 years later as far as recorded examples indicate.

As well as Vincent’s angina, there is also another severe eponymously named throat infection/inflammation, Ludwig’s angina; there is also ‘ abdominal (or intestinal) angina ‘.  

Originally, angina appears to come from Latin and meant (sensations of ) ‘choking’ or ‘strangulation’ - It is interesting to note the differences in meaning of the word now as just one of innumerable examples of language change over the years/centuries. It may ‘move’ slowly or quickly, but language is and always has been, an evolving construct. 

https://www.etymonline.com/word/angina

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441943/#:~:text=Abdominal%20angina%20is%20postprandial%20pain,pectoris%20in%20coronary%20artery%20disease.

 https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/abdominal-angina#:~:text=Termed%2520%E2%80%9Cintestinal%2520angina%252C%E2%80%9D%2520the,if%2520patients%2520are%2520left%2520untreated.

 https://www.dictionary.com/browse/angina 

Anne D.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

And branching off again, I was interested to see from Cécile’s answer that the tonsils are les amygdales in French. The amygdala to English-speakers is an important area in each temporal lobe of the brain - almond shaped, like the tonsils, and named from the Latin for almond.

Sore throats

Interested to know why "mal de gorge" wasn’t accepted?

 Incidentally there’s a very rare type of severe throat infection known as "Vincent’s angina" in English. I find from the internet that it’s named after a French epidemiologist with the magnificent name of Jean Hyacinthe Vincent. 

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