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From: rwt@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Rainer Thonnes)
Subject: Re: ae (was: Sociological autopsy of the Dunblane massacre)
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Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 13:08:14 GMT
Lines: 20

In article <4qp7sf$lp7@sun4.bham.ac.uk>,
sjt@fourier.bham.ac.uk (Sam J. Turner) writes:
> Rainer Thonnes (rwt@dcs.ed.ac.uk) wrote:
> : Cheradenine Zakalwe <zakalwe@vision25.demon.co.uk> writes:
> : > It's a pity English can't use the words "child-doctor", "foot-doctor"
> : > etc.
> 
> : But it can, it just doesn't, because it might mean the wrong thing, e.g.
> : a witch-doctor is not one who specialises in the care of witches.
> 
> Are you suggesting that this confusion is remedied by
> contriving greek/latin scientific terms?

Not at all, in fact I would endorse heart-doctor, gut-doctor, tooth-doctor, etc.

> And who, exactly, would ever imagine a witch-doctor
> to treat witches, outside a children's comic book?

Anyone who had been lulled into a false sense of omniscience from frequent
use of X-doctor as a treater of X.
