Unexpected word relationships: lädiert, Läsionen

[pne]

I just read an article in c’t magazine about ergonomic mouses and alternative input devices such as trackballs and touchpads, and came across this bit:

Allein die Rotatorenmanschette, also das Muskel-Sehnen-Paket, das den Arm im Schulter-Kugelgelenk hält, kann an vielen verschiedenen Stellen lädiert sein. Jede dieser Läsionen wird Schmerzen bei einem anderen Bewegungsablauf hervorrufen.

I had a pause for a moment when I read that—then it dawned on me that "lädiert" and "Läsionen" are almost certainly related etymologically.

Again, an insight I had never had before, especially since the words belongs to two different registers. "Lädiert", for me, is a fairly informal, even jocular, word meaning, more or less, "damaged" (but not completely broken or unusable), and about as non-specific. I might use it to describe the state of a parcel I received, for example.

"Läsion" ("lesion" in English), on the other hand, is a fairly formal word, part of medical jargon, and one I'd only expect to hear in a medical/anatomical context—not the kind of damage I would think of immediately when hearing "lädiert".

So presumably, there's also a technical meaning of "lädiert", which subsequently (I suppose) led to the informal, unspecific meaning that I knew.

Fascinating.

Comments

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

Never heard of that informal "lädiert".

lädiert

[pne.livejournal.com]

Now you've made me uncertain!

At first I thought it might have been a north-Germanism, but Duden's thesaurus gives (http://www.duden.de/duden-suche/werke/d8/006/004/ldiert.6004501.html) "angeschlagen, beschädigt, defekt, schadhaft; (ugs.): angeknackst, mitgenommen, ramponiert" as synonyms -- and I feel that "ramponiert", for example, has a similar feel and meaning as "lädiert" (though slightly more intensive), at least for me.

Interestingly, Woxikon's thesaurus gives (http://synonyme.woxikon.de/synonyme/lädiert.php) two groups of meanings: the one I know ("beschädigt, brüchig, defekt, schadhaft, leck, ausgedient, undicht") and a more medical one ("verletzt, verwundet") which I hadn't known previously.

Googling for "lädiert" returns a number of hits referring to people, but also a fair number referring to luggage, book covers, etc. So at least I'm not the only one using it.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it is a Prussianismus, because it's new to me as well. I would simply say "beschädigt".

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Equally interesting to me is the fact that there's no English cognate of lädieren. Instead, we have a verb derived from the noun, at least for medical contexts like the paragraph above, i.e. "...can be lesioned in many different locations."

[pne.livejournal.com]

That is interesting.

Instead, we have a verb derived from the noun, at least for medical contexts like the paragraph above, i.e. "...can be lesioned in many different locations."

Interesting; this verb was mentioned in a LEO forum discussion on "lädiert" (http://dict.leo.org/forum/viewUnsolvedquery.php?idThread=151126&idForum=1&lp=ende&lang=de), but "Farfold", who says he's a medical doctor, denies the existence of this verb.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

He can deny it all he wants, but a simply Google search will turn up thousands of examples. Medical jargon, like every other type of lect, varies geographically; perhaps it's just not in use where he lives.