Silly Syllables

There are a lot of us around, folks who tend to see their glasses half full, with replenishment pending. Part of my personal optimism is the perhaps naive belief that there are tons of jobs requiring the education and training of experts who know more about their particular fields than I do. Consequently, I trust those experts and their products and services.

As in pharmaceuticals. Prescriptions have names with prefixes and suffixes with relevant medical significance. Even if I can’t pronounce them correctly, my health care advocates would recognize medical ingredients and conditions being treated because of those prefixes, suffixes and stems. I had no interest in working in health care, but even I had to memorize lists of prefixes/suffixes for vocabulary tests in high school and college.

At least medicines USED to have names with etymological connections. I’m not hearing and seeing evidence of that these days.

For about a year now, after a decade plus without a TV, I’ve been watching a smart television with access to way more viewing opportunities than I’ll ever discover. What I HAVE discovered is that most commercials have changed drastically.

In particular I’m increasingly frustrated with the ones for medications. I’m blaming them for the multiplying, deepening wrinkles in my forehead. The names of the oral and topical treatments advertised don’t have any familiar, medical-sounding syllables.

Instead they resemble words from magazines, cut into two or three sections, dumped into a box then taped together as randomly plucked from the jumble.The letters Z and X seem to appear more, along with Q minus the requisite U.

It turns out that’s not too far off. Instead of applying meaningful prefixes, suffixes and derivations and relying on medical professionals to name them, the task is turned over to the equivalent of a think tank.

There may be nary a medical participant among the thinkers! Instead, it could be a conglomeration of people who deal with words - like columnists and poets and copywriters. They use a variety of resources that don’t sound doctor-y, like rhyming dictionaries and sports references and collections of terms for surfing or rodeoing.

A medical professional doesn’t have to offer me pills and potions with cool-sounding monikers to get me to take my medicine. Just make sure they treat what ails me.