mcguire@aerospace.aero.org (Rod McGuire) (11/06/90)
A vanishing entity I've been intrigued by is "germs." They still exist but their name/concept is being displaced by more scientific terminology. Active discussion of germs only occurs in linguistic backwaters such as: (1) talk with and among 4 year olds about why they shouldn't share lollipops, and (2) advertisements for Lysol which try to scare consumers into buying the product. In fact germs, in the concerns of 4 year olds, seem to have taken over the role previously played by cooties (head lice.) But in other areas of discussion, more advanced terminology is favored. Even the military now talks about "biological warfare" rather than "germ warfare". So my questions are: does anybody still seriously talk about germs, and what is the scientific usage history of this term? Was it well accepted and then fell into disfavor for legitimate reasons or just because children had appropriated it. -- Roderick McGuire - mcguire@aerospace.aero.org PS: Yes I was implying an analogy between 4 year olds and consumers of Lysol, so there is no reason for followup postings to point this out. PPS: Please note the newsgroups line and edit followups so that only appropriate groups get sent information on how to make a cootie catcher.