$20,000 Words

Medical jargon, as it should be expected, is hardly limited to obscure conditions or highly technical procedures. While some of it has permeated into the common parlance, there are conditions that retain their common names, and only doctors end up knowing the 20-dollar words for such mundane things as hair loss. Seeing that our annual tuition hovers around the $20,000 mark, I call them the 20,000-dollar words. Alopecia (baldness), pruritis (itching), or exanthema (rash) are just few such examples. It's always fun to throw out a medical term for something common and watch for response. I suppose it's the geeky thing to do...