Re:A DNA ‘Parasite’ May Have Fragmented Our Genes
by magpi3 on Friday March 31, 2023 @01:55AM
(#35383151)
That is very interesting. In Chinese, a word for rabies is 恐水病, which literally means fear water disease. I have never understood why until I read your explanation, but from what you have said the Chinese term would also appear to be misleading.
Re:A DNA ‘Parasite’ May Have Fragmented Our Genes
by thaumasiotes on Friday March 31, 2023 @02:10AM
(#35383269)
It's possible that the Chinese word for rabies is translated from the West. This appears to be the case for other illnesses such as 糖尿病 sweet-urine-disease (diabetes mellitus).†
I don't really know how to find the answer to that question, though.
† I guess if it were a really literal translation of the Western term, it'd be 蜜尿病.
It doesn't.
> Rabies:As the disease progresses, the person may experience delirium, abnormal behavior, hallucinations, hydrophobia (fear of water)
This is a weird mistake for the CDC to make. The etymological meaning of "hydrophobia" is "fear of water". But the English word is completely disconnected from that; it just means "rabies". Because of this, the disambiguation page for "Hydrophobia" on wikipedia links to rabies as well as to "aquaphobia", an actual fear of water which had to be named badly because the name "hydrophobia" was already taken.
Rabies was named "hydrophobia" because rabies patients will generally refuse water when it's offered to them. They do that because rabies makes it difficult to swallow, not because they're afraid of the water.