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situation. Shortly afterwards, the note might be ‘C/C’ (cancel
Christmas) or ‘ECU’ (eternal care unit – i.e. heaven).
2. TEETH – Tried Everything Else, Try Homeopathy:
Medical doctors’ contempt for dubious alternative medicine shines
through in this innocent-looking acronym, which similarly
suggests that a patient doesn’t have much hope of recovery.
3. NFN – Normal for Norfolk: More biting humour here;
Norfolk is typically the punchline of British jokes about people
who are a bit odd, because of the area’s insular reputation.
4. ATS – Acute Thespian Syndrome: Many examples of
doctors’ slang sound like they could be an actual condition –
almost. ‘Thespian’ is a seldom-used English word for ‘actor’, so if
someone in a doctor’s surgery or hospital has ‘acute thespian
syndrome’, then they’re putting it on. Similarly, ‘acute
pneumoencephalopathy’ sounds like a real condition, but in fact
means ‘airheaded’.
5. Baby catcher: A ‘baby catcher’ is a much less obscure
term than the previous four – it means obstetrician. Similarly, the
‘Freud squad’ refers to psychiatrists, ‘slashers’ to surgeons and
‘gassers’ to anaesthetists.
Computer Professionalisms
The world of slang used by computer technicians,
programmers and other parts of the computer geek world
sometimes has the same root as medical slang: the need to explain
a circumstance to others without your patient/client understanding
you. However, slang in these professions is more often based
around making what can be a frustrating job a little bit more
entertaining.
So much of what was once geek slang has now entered
mainstream usage (most people are now familiar with the concept
of a ‘gif’, even if we can’t agree on how to pronounce it) that
profession-specific slang is harder to find. Additionally, in such a
fast-moving field, many terms are now obsolete – the idea of being
‘stuck in blue bar land’, where a loading screen takes forever, is

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