7. A nosebleed by another name
Morsel:
The medical name for a nosebleed is ‘epistaxis’.
Meal:
The majority of medical terms stem either from Latin and/or Ancient
Greek, and the technical name for a nosebleed is no exception. This
word has a parent from both: it was borrowed from Latin, and was
created from ancient Greek, where “epi”, meaning “upon”, is
formed with “stazein”, meaning “to let fall in drops”.
Epixtaxis is common, affecting around 60% of the general population,
and usually harmless. The bleeding is often limited and so those
affected do not seek medical attention. There are a myriad of causes
for epistaxis, ranging from physical trauma to irritation from dry
air.
The vast majority of cases occur in the anterior part of the nose,
where the Kieseelbach plexus forms on the septum. This is an area
where blood vessels converge and is at the front of the nose.
Incidents in the posterior of the nose, further back in the nasal
cavity, are rarer and more dangerous as they can hinder breathing.
A person having a nosebleed can have different meanings to different
cultures. In Japanese manga and anime, it can indicate that the
person, usually a male, is sexually aroused. In Japanese and Western
media, characters with psychic powers may have nosebleeds, which
serve as a visual indicator of the physiological stress of their
abilities. In the Phillipines, speakers of Tagalog may exclaim
“nosebleed!” when having difficulty speaking or to understanding a
fluent English speaker.
The ancient cultures believed that nosebleeds demonstrated the health
of a woman. In a collection of ancient Egyptian texts called the
Kahun Papyri, one incomplete text details a magical spell for inducing a
nosebleed, which they believed could determine the ferility of a
woman. If she never bleed after application of the spell, then she
would never give birth. The Ancient Greeks based remedies around the
belief that a woman's body was like a tube, which extended from the
“nostrils to the uterus”. Blood would flow from one end to the
next and so a nosebleed demonstrated that the menstrual flow of this
tube was unimpeded.
Recipe:
Nguyen, Quoc A. 2017. “Epistaxis.”
Medscape. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
Tracey, Liz. 2016. “‘STRANGER
THINGS’ AND THE PSYCHIC NOSEBLEED.” JSTOR Daily.
Retrieved October 30, 2017.
Perdon, Renato. 2008. Making
Out in Tagalog: A Tagalog Language Phrase Book. Tuttle
Publishing. Pg. 154
Bettini, Maurizio. 2013. Women
and Weasels: Mythologies of Birth in Ancient Greece and Rome.
Pg 105.
David, Rosalie. 1986. The
Pryamid Builders of Ancient Egypt: A Modern Investigation of
Pharaoh’s Workforce. London: Routledge.
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