To the Editors:
The name “asthma nervosa” [1] is linguistically incorrect. Asthma is a Greek neutral noun in a language that tries hard to keep its genders apart. Nervosa is a Latin adjective and this language also does not mix the genders: nervosa is feminine (as are anorexia and bulimia, two conditions for which nervosa is appropriate). Therefore, we should refer to asthma as nervosum (both neutral). This may sound slightly odd in English, and therefore, I would have no objection to “nervous asthma”. However, if we want to pay tribute to the Classics, we should try to use them as correctly as possible.
Footnotes
Statement of Interest
None declared.
- ©ERS 2011
