From LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU Sat Feb 3 06:11:02 1996 Received: from wnt.dc.lsoft.com (wnt.dc.lsoft.com [205.186.43.7]) by locke.ccil.org (8.6.9/8.6.10) with ESMTP id GAA20972 for ; Sat, 3 Feb 1996 06:11:01 -0500 Message-Id: <199602031111.GAA20972@locke.ccil.org> Received: from PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (205.186.43.4) by wnt.dc.lsoft.com (LSMTP for Windows NT v1.0a) with SMTP id C73246B0 ; Sat, 3 Feb 1996 5:38:00 -0500 Date: Fri, 2 Feb 1996 18:29:43 -0600 Reply-To: "Steven M. Belknap" Sender: Lojban list From: "Steven M. Belknap" Subject: besna gaxykafke To: John Cowan Status: OR X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 1899 la .andruc. cusku dihe >What on earth is a 'brain fart' in English !! > Last week I attended a conference in Boston about preventing adverse drug reactions. The concept "brain fart" was prominently featured. The AHD defines fart as: 1. To expel intestinal gas through the anus; break wind This definition does not get to the heart of "brain fart" The etymology of the word is more instructive: perd-. Important derivatives are: fart, partridge. . perd-. To fart. 1. FART, from Old English *feortan, to fart, from Germanic *fertan, *fart=C5= n. 2. PARTRIDGE, from Greek perdix, partridge (which makes a sharp whirring sound when suddenly flushed). [Pokorny perd- 819.] See also pezd- If you've ever gone partridge hunting (or if you will imagine doing so) you will understand that the sudden sound of the flushed partridge is unpredictable, startling, and imposed on a background of a quiet, relaxing stroll through an open field. This is the sense of fart that "brain fart" is using. In the hospital, a health care worker is said to have had a brain fart when he/she inexplicably makes a catastrophic, irrational, and unpredictable error despite a long history of accurate, reliable service. Problems are often blamed on "brain farts" which unfortunately distracts one from making improvements to the system which will prevent such errors in the future. I would probably say: to refer to the metaphor of brain fart, lest I be accused of a malglico. As a metaphor this seems fine, if hard to say. A less metaphorical translation might be "surprising thinking error" cohomihe la stivn Steven M. Belknap, M.D. Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Medicine University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria email: sbelknap@uic.edu Voice: 309/671-3403 =46ax: 309/671-8413